Thursday 30 July, at 7:50 AM local time, NASA’s Perseverance rover launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. After being placed in the initial parking orbit around Earth, the spacecraft separated from the rocket and is now on course towards our neighbouring planet, Mars.

Perseverance - ‘the continued effort to do something despite difficulty, delay and opposition’ - is the latest rover to take off on a mission flown by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, and with our burning desire to discover the planet’s secrets, Mars 2020 will hopefully be a stepping stone towards even more remarkable future missions one once believed were impossible.

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As the fourth planet in our solar system, Mars is often considered the closest planet to Earth, and humans have been intrigued by our red neighbour for centuries. As one of the terrestrial planets, meaning that it has a solid rocky surface, and other similarities to our Earth, Mars is looking to perhaps become the first foreign planet humans will ever set foot on. Even though Mars’ entire surface is currently dry, cold and seemingly lifeless, researchers have reasons to believe that it once was a more liveable planet. And, as the hypothesis of the planet being warmer, having a thicker atmosphere and there being liquid water on the surface almost four billion years ago seems likely, there may also have been some forms of life residing the, now known as, Red Planet. 

The Mars 2020 mission has several key objectives including collection of samples to learn more about the red planet’s astrobiology, and further testing of technology in preparation of future robotic, and possibly human, exploration on Martian soil.  

Perseverance will land over what is known as the Jezero Crater and explore its diverse geology. This area was chosen in particular because it is believed to have been an ancient lake with what is called a delta, a place where a river flows into a still body of water. A river delta is a wonderful place for microorganisms to live, and it is particularly ideal for this mission because the rocks and soil beneath a delta has proven to be a place where signs of ancient microbiological life is well preserved. With exploring this delta and collecting samples to possibly send back to Earth on a future mission, researchers will mainly look for biosignatures, possible signs of ancient microbial life, and what they discover will hopefully give us a better understanding of Martian history and assist NASA’s quest to explore and discover past life on Mars. 

A crucial part of succeeding in such a mission lies with the technology of the rover and spacecraft. NASA explains that the development of space technology builds on the idea that each new mission is reliant on past missions for proven technologies that they can keep advancing, but they each also contribute with innovations and new experiments that will support other future missions. Some of the new and improved technologies the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is sporting includes; new, more durable wheels with a modified shape for steeper climbs and maximum performance across rough terrain; an exterior robotic arm installed with a drill, with which the rover will collect rock samples; microphones that may capture the very first audio samples from Mars; and for the very first time, this mission will test out technology of producing oxygen from Mars’ carbon-dioxide atmosphere. One of the main features on this rover are the two robotic arms. The outside arm is, as mentioned, installed with a drill that will drill through rocks to collect samples that are then transferred to the inside of the rover where they by the second interior robotic arm will be sealed in tubes and stored before they eventually will be sent back on a separate mission for further analysis in laboratories here on Earth.

A separate project happening simultaneously is the Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, which will ride to Mars attached to the Perseverance rover’s belly. The helicopter will demonstrate technologies and, for the very first time, hopefully test a powered flight on Mars. If Ingenuity is even able to take off from the surface of Mars, it is desired to perform up to five flights during the first 30 days after entering Mars. Having a helicopter assist rovers on future Martian missions will provide an aerial dimension which will open new possibilities to explore areas that the rovers would not be able to access on their own.

This is a complex mission made possible due to international collaboration across fields, but there are still lots of work to be done as the rover is currently only in the very beginning phase of its journey. For the next few months, the spacecraft will be on a voyage through space before it approaches Mars. Then the phase of ‘Entry, Descent and Landing’ will take place, as the spacecraft journey through the martian atmosphere and hopefully lands safely on the planet, which is expected to be around 18 February 2021. Then, after an instrument check to make sure everything is in order, the actual surface operation of collecting samples begins!