NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on July 30 atop an Atlas 5 rocket. The Atlas 5 is one of the largest rockets available for interplanetary flight. This is the same type of rocket that launched the InSight and Curiosity to Mars. 

The next-generation robotic rover — a car-sized six-wheeled vehicle carrying seven scientific instruments — is scheduled to deploy a mini helicopter on Mars and try out equipment for future human treks. 

This was the third launch from Earth to Mars in July, following probes sent by the United Arab Emirates and China. All three missions are expected to reach their destination in February next year. 

Highlights of the mission

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will search for signs of ancient microbial life, which will advance NASA’s quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. 

The rover is expected to land on Mars on February 18, 2021 at the site of an ancient river delta in a lake that once filled Jezero Crater. The mission is at least one Mars year (about 687 Earth days).

The rover has a drill to collect core samples of Martian rock and soil, then store them in sealed tubes for pickup by a future mission that would ferry them back to Earth for detailed analysis. 

Perseverance will test technologies to help pave the way for future human exploration of Mars.

Strapped to the rover’s belly for the journey to Mars is a technology demonstration Mars Helicopter — Ingenuity — which may achieve a “Wright Brothers moment” by testing the first powered flight on the Red Planet. A series of flight tests will be performed over a 30-Martian-day experimental window that will begin sometime in the spring of 2021.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store