One of the most ambitious missions of recent times has started this week: the United Atlas Launch Alliance’s big Atlas X rocket, which transports the new robot from NASA, has taken off from the Cabo Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canavera, Florida, United States. The robot in question has been dubbed “Perseverance” and will arrive on Mars in February 2021.
Will land in the cráter Lake, where 2,500 million years ago a river ran, depositing sediment, sand and mud. NASA scientists explain that it is one of the best-preserved Mars surface deltas.
Features of “Perseverance”
It measures 2.7 meters wide and 3 meters long, and weighs 1043. It has a total of 23 cameras and two microphones. In addition, it incorporates a state-of-the-art laboratory with various scientific instruments. The most important are an X-ray machine and two lasers that will help analyze the molecular and chemical composition of the Red Planet.
Perseverance can cover an average of 200 meters every 24 hours and 39 minutes, equivalent to a Martian day. Thanks to the SuperCam will obtain images and analyze the mineralogy composition and chemistry ground.
The new NASA robot contains a small laboratory inside it allows to generate oxygen from carbon dioxide, abundant on Mars. If the test is successful, CO2 can be used as its own resource for humans to explore the Red Planet without the need to carry terrestrial oxygen.
To all this must be added that “Perseverance” also has benefits that will be of great help to astronauts, such as enhanced piloting intelligence.
With this mission, scientists want to collect samples of fossils of bacteria or other microbes that help confirm that they are indeed there was life on Mars. And on the other hand,
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