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Today, NASA will launch its new rover to Mars, watch the launch live here

NASA’s new rover is ready for its journey to Mars. A new chapter in human exploration of the red planet begins. If all goes well.

The rover has been named Perseverance, which means perseverance or steadfastness in Norwegian. It is about the size of a car and is equipped with seven scientific instruments that can give scientists new knowledge about our neighboring planet. In addition, it carries a mini-helicopter.

NASA has confirmed that the rover will be launched from Florida today at 7:50 am EDT, that is at 13:50 in Norway. The launch window will be for two hours, with a new option every five minutes.

If the launch should not be possible today, the team will try again until 15 August.

In the video at the bottom of the case, you can see NASA’s live broadcast of the incident.

Should be looking for early life in ancient lake

The rover’s main mission is to look for traces of early life on the planet.

Between three and four billion years ago, Mars may have had liquid water and a protective magnetic field, such as Earth. Maybe dead elements came together and formed microorganisms on the planet, such as on our young planet?

Perseverance must land in a crater called the Jezero Crater. This space is perfect for investigating these issues, NASA scientists believe.

The Jezero crater has been full of water, they believe. You can clearly see traces of two rivers that have flowed in and out of the crater sea.

The picture shows the Jezero crater. The landing place for Preseverance has been circled.

– This is a wonderful place to live for microorganisms, says Ken Farley who works with the Perseverance project, in a video from NASA.

– It is also a wonderful place for the conservation of these microorganisms, so that we can find them again billions of years later.

The rover will land in a former delta at the river mouth.

“There is no other place on Mars that has the unique combination of a lake setting, a beautifully preserved delta and the diverse mineralogy that we have in the Jezero crater,” says researcher Katy Stack Morgan in the video.

The rover will explore this ancient river delta.

The rover will explore this ancient river delta.

– Important for two reasons

Perseverance will try to find out what has happened in the Jezero crater by examining the geology. Then it will do thorough chemical analyzes of the surface.

Svein-Erik Hamran, professor at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (FFI) recently spoke about the Perseverance project in a podcast from FFI published on forskning.no.

Svein-Erik Hamran leads a Norwegian research team that has developed a georadar for use on Mars.

Svein-Erik Hamran leads a Norwegian research team that has developed a georadar for use on Mars.

He said that the expedition will be important in two ways.

One is that this is the last step for NASA to search for life on Mars, and it has been going on for many years.

NASA’s former rovers have found evidence that there has been water on the surface and that “ingredients” for life were present. Now Perseverance will take the step further.

Perseverance is to take samples of the Martian surface. The samples will be securely sealed and left on the ground. Later they will be picked up by another vessel. NASA is in the process of planning the advanced operation needed to transport the samples to Earth. For the time being, they envisage that the cargo will be able to be brought home in 2031.

Only laboratories on earth will be able to confirm with certainty whether Perseverance has discovered evidence of life, according to an article i forbes.com.

Norwegian georadar

Svein-Erik Hamran leads the Norwegian research team that has developed one of the instruments on the radar, a georadar.

This will look down into the ground on Mars. The georadar will be able to tell the researchers about how the sediments were formed over time. It will also help to determine which areas are most interesting to sample.

A Norwegian also has a finger in the pie when the independent mini-helicopter is to be tested.

Håvard Fjær Grip shall be involved in governing the first flying vessel on Mars. You can read more about mini helicopters in this case at forskning.no.

This is what NASA's new robot vehicle looks like.

This is what NASA’s new robot vehicle looks like.

Will make preparations for manned journey

NASA is planning to send humans to the moon again during the 2020s. Then they want to point their noses at Mars. The exploration of the moon and Mars is closely intertwined, writes the space agency on their websites. On the moon, they will test equipment needed for humans to survive on Mars.

Perseverance will also prepare the ground for future manned missions to Mars.

It carries with it an instrument that converts carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into oxygen. This will be a demonstration of the technology. In the future, oxygen produced in this way can give astronauts air to breathe.

Furthermore, sensors on the rover will provide researchers with information about the critical landing phase. It will help to design manned voyages to the planet in a safe way.

Among other things, researchers will also look at how dust in the atmosphere and weather on Mars will affect humans and the technology they carry with them.

China and the Emirates on their way to Mars

Perseverance will take seven months towards the goal. It is expected to land in February 2021.

NASA is not the only one hoping to land a new spacecraft on Mars.

On July 23, China launched Tianwen-1. The spacecraft consists of a rover, a landing craft and a satellite. This is the first time China will try to land on Mars.

The European Space Agency (ESA) had also planned to send a spacecraft to Mars in July, but they were not ready in time. ESA must now wait two years before Earth and Mars are in a position where the next opportunity presents itself. The rover Rosalind Franklin will be able to drill two meters into the ground, and is, like Perseverance, built to look for traces of life.

On its way to Mars is also the United Arab Emirates’ spacecraft, Hope. The probe will orbit Mars and examine the atmosphere. The launch took place on July 19 and was successful.

2021 will be exciting on the space front. It is not so easy to go to Mars. About two out of three expeditions of various kinds have ended badly, according to Space.com. But all of NASA’s attempts to land in the last 20 years have been successful.

Watch the launch live here

Perseverance is scheduled to be launched today at 13:50.


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