The spacecraft Perseverance of the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) completed its seven-month journey and successfully landed on Mars on 18.02.2021.
The vehicle will search for traces of past life during its stay on the Red Planet. The data obtained by Perseverance, which can obtain microscopic images thanks to the equipment on it, will be sent to the Earth and evaluated. As we know, Mars used to be a wet planet, so it is highly likely that there is at least microscopic signs of life, if not as large as on earth. When we look at the Jezero crater from space, we understand that this region was a lake 3.5 billion years ago. Perhaps it is only a matter of time now that the question of the origin of life, which is a revolutionary question in terms of science, is answered.
This is the second one-ton spacecraft NASA has delivered to Mars. It’s not easy to spot the difference between Perseverance and the Curiosity car, which was downloaded to the Gale Crater in 2012. But under the skin, Perseverance has a very different set of equipment. It has been equipped with special instruments so that it can do scientific researches.
The delay time of the signal originating from the distance between Earth and Mars is 11.5 minutes. In other words, the update of a situation from the vehicle to the world takes place after 11.5 minutes. This delay is too long for us to react if the vehicle encounters a problem. Therefore, the vehicle was sent to Marsa with a fully autonomous design. In other words, he can take precautions against the problems that may happen to him. In this way, we do not experience data loss.
Chief engineer Adam Steltzner stated that the vehicle’s tire system was also strengthened with the experience gained from Curiosity. In order for Perseverance to move on the rocky surface of Mars without wearing it, the tires were produced with special strips.
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Halit Yusuf Genç
Sources:
-NASA
-BBC
Engineer For Space 