Nasa's Perseverance rover lands on Mars

  • NASA’s rover Perseverance landed safely on the floor of a vast crater,
  • Its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.
  • Nasa's Perseverance rove becomes the fifth Nasa rover ever to touch down on Mars after Sojourner -- twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity and Curiosity.

DETAILS OF LAUNCH

  • The launch was made aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V.
  • The launch took place from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 
  • The Rover’s destination is a crater Jezero. 

COMPONENTS 

  • Perseverance is loaded with seven instruments chosen to help it achieve its mission objectives.
  • Perseverance will carry a unique instrument, MOXIE or Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment. 
  • MOXIE will manufacture molecular oxygen on Mars using carbon dioxide from the carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere. 
  • ISRU means In Situ Resource Utilization: or the use of local resources to meet human needs or requirements of the spacecraft.
  • The mission will also carry Ingenuity, the first ever helicopter to fly on Mars, 

AIM OF THE MISSION

  • Scientists believe that if life ever flourished on Mars, it would have happened 3 billion to 4 billion years ago, when water still flowed on the planet. 
  • The primary objective of Perseverance's two-year, $2.7 billion endeavor is to search for signs of microbes that may have flourished on Mars some 3 billion years ago, about the time life was emerging on Earth.
  • Scientists hope to find biosignatures embedded in samples of ancient sediments that Perseverance is designed to extract from Martian rock for analysis back on Earth.
  • The miniature helicopter is designed to test the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet.
HISTORY 
  • NASA has been sending rovers on Mars since 1997 when the Mars Pathfinder Mission was initiated.
  • Second time, the space organization sent twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity to Mars in 2003.
  • The third attempt was by sending Curiosity in 2012.

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