Perseverance, Mars' Newest Rover

 


The perseverance rover touched down mars' surface on 18th February 2021. It is the newest robot made by the collaboration of NASA and the European Space Agency. It will search for evidence of past life on Mars. It is the first NASA mission in 50 years that is specially designed to find life on Mars. Perseverance will collect samples of microbial fossils in the rocks of Mars. It is designed to look for organic molecules in the environment of mars. 

Perseverance is supposed to collect different samples of rocks and store them in tubes that will be collected by future NASA missions. Many types of laboratory analysis cannot be performed in space, that’s why these samples will be brought back to be tested on earth. As a part of the program, separate missions will be sent to mars that will pick up these samples from the surface, and using an orbiter rocket will be delivered to earth, possibly by 2031. 


Perseverance is the size of a compact car. It weighs 1 ton and consists of 6 wheels. It is a nuclear-powered rover that can operate without sunlight.  Many cameras are strategically placed around the rover that will help NASA to operate it as well as to collect pictures of mars' surface. It also contains different radars to detect water underground and a weather station which will collect data about the weather of mars. A perseverance device called MOXIE, will extract carbon dioxide from mars’ surface and produce oxygen. 

There is a small drone called “Ingenuity”, attached underneath the Perseverance rover that will be used to test the flying conditions on mars. Atmosphere density on mars is 1% of the earth’s environment, it is difficult to produce thrust to get off the ground. 

We hope this mission will be a great success and humanity will discover undefinable objects. Technology and science have made us come this far. The quest of discovering new worlds is exciting. 

By: 

Rana Ata ur Rehman