What will NASA's Perseverance Rover Test On Mars Mission Overview (SpaceFix) 4K

On July 30th, 2020, NASA launched the next generation of robotic explorers to the red planet, Mars. For around seven months, Perseverance travelled through the cold darkness of space, until on the 18th of February 2021, it arrived and began its seven minutes of terror. Striking the thin, dusty Martian atmosphere at nearly 12,500 miles per hour, which is 20,000 kilometres an hour, the spacecraft slammed on its brakes, reduced its speed and thankfully settled safely on the sands of another world. It entered, descended and landed on the red planet's surface, becoming the fifth NASA rover to successfully touch down on Mars. Recognised as the fire star to ancient Chinese astronomers, Mars still holds many burning, unanswered questions and once again NASA is attempting to answer them, this time with the help of their largest rover yet, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The car-sized robot landed within a region on Mars named the Jezero crater, which is a 28 mile or 45 kilometre wide impact crater on the western side of a much larger impact basin called Isidis. In Slavic languages, Jezero means lake and it is a fitting name for the location, because this unexplored area of Mars was possibly once a huge ancient body of water, with rivers and streams flowing into it, similar to what can be found here on Earth. Like its predecessor and little brother, Curiosity, Perseverance is a semi-autonomous mobile science platform, which is designed to spend its Martian days exploring the red planet. It will seek for signs of ancient microbial life, attempting to uncover the planet's mysterious past, but also test different technologies for future human exploration. Nicknamed Percy by its Earth-bound crew, Perseverance is almost identical to Curiosity in design and size, but is much heavier. The extra weight is made up by an upgraded robotic arm that features a coring drill, a close-up surface inspection camera and two extra scientific instruments. The roaming laboratory also has a sample collection system, which will allow a future mission to retrieve and bring back to Earth Martian samples for studying and five extra cameras, offering 23 in total. A surprisingly exciting upgrade, however, is that Perseverance is also carrying onboard microphones, which will eventually allow us to finally get a true understanding of what Mars really sounds like. Perseverance will roam the barren landscape for many years to come, but it won't be alone, because accompanying the rover is Ingenuity, a small helicopter drone. Ingenuity will attempt to demonstrate flight on Mars and provide aerial images. It will fly for up to 90 seconds, at least five times during a 30-day period, and hopefully assist engineers back on Earth to better plan the rover's route. As soon as Perseverance touched down, it sent back three images of its landing site. The low-resolution images are partially obscured by clear protective caps and were taken by the rover's hazard avoidance cameras, which help with driving across the rocky, sandy surface. According to NASA, as the rover powers up and the system checks are complete, better quality, higher resolution images will soon be flooding in, revealing once again the red planet's alien surface. Scientists hope that this mission will pave the way for future expeditions by demonstrating exciting scientific technologies. The roaming laboratory will attempt to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identify resources such as subsurface water, explore ways of improving future landing techniques, and provide a much more accurate picture of the red planet's weather, as well as highlight any other environmental conditions that may enhance or affect future astronauts visiting Mars. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is set to bring us an exciting new look at the red planet as it slowly explores the mysterious world, and hopefully we will not have to wait too long before we get to see, hear and enjoy these amazing discoveries.