24-08-2021 | 14:39 PM
NASA’s Perseverance Rover
• Context: NASA’s Perseverance rover is exploring the Jezero Crater on Mars and attempting to collect its first rock samples. However, no rock samples were collected during the first attempt.
About Perseverance Rover:
• It was launched in 2020 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V.
• It carried a unique instrument, MOXIE or Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment which for the first time manufactured molecular oxygen on Mars using carbon dioxide from the carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere.
• It also carried Ingenuity, the first-ever helicopter to fly on Mars.
• It is the planned first step to bring back rock samples from Mars for analysis in sophisticated laboratories on Earth: with the goal of looking for biosignatures: or signatures of present or past life.
Key objectives of Mission:
i. Look for signs of ancient microbial life.
ii. Collect Martian rock and dust samples for later return to Earth.
iii. Deliver an experimental helicopter.
iv. Study the climate and geology of Mars.
v. Demonstrate technology for future Mars missions.
