| ▲ An image depicting the moment Percivirence lands on Mars (Source = NASA JPL) | ||
NASA’s Mars exploration rover’Mars 2020 Perseverance’ landed safely on Mars’Jezero Crater’ on the 18th, NASA officially announced. Upon landing, Percivirence sent images of Mars’ surface to Earth.
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| ▲ Percivirence’s first picture of the surface of Mars. Some of the foreground is obscured by the camera cover. (Photo = NASA JPL) | ||
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| ▲ NASA engineers cheering at the news of the landing on Mars (photo = YouTube capture) | ||
Persivirance is the largest and most advanced rover NASA has ever sent to Mars. It was launched from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida on July 30 last year, and flew 472 km in 203 days.
The Persistence Rover measures 2.2m and weighs 1026kg. For the next two years, it will be engaged in scientific exploration in the crater as an example. Percivirence’s most essential mission is to understand the existence of ancient microbes and to understand Mars’ geology and climate. NASA is also working with the European Space Agency (ESA) to carry out a mission to bring rock samples collected by Percivirance to Earth.
NASA Deputy Director Thomas Jubuchen said, “Percivirence took the first step in its mission to bring rock and regoliths from Mars. We don’t yet know what this primitive rock sample will tell us. But in the future, it will be a monumental thing for this sample to inform us.”
As an example of the landing of Percivirence, the crater is 45km wide. It is estimated that a triangular (delta) river basin was formed 3.5 billion years ago and the river flowed. Scientists are expecting a lot of primitive organic life in the delta basin in fossil form.
The rover is powered not from sunlight, but from the’Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG)’. It is a technology that converts thermal energy released by radioactive isotopes into electrical energy. The US Department of Energy has partnered with NASA to provide this MMRTG for the development of power systems for civilian space applications.
Percivirence collected data on Mars’ atmosphere during its landing on Mars using the’MEDLI2′ (The Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2) sensor device. In addition, by using’Terrain-Relative Navigation’ technology, it is equipped with an autonomous function that allows safe landing without colliding with obstacles on the Mars surface, so that it landed gently without any accident.
In the future, Perciversity will engage in full-scale exploration activities using various scientific equipment. ‘Mastcam-Z’ is a pair of zooming cameras equipped with the head of a rover, and takes a high-resolution color 3D panoramic view. SuperCam crushes rocks and Rigolis with a laser to examine the composition. The Supercam is equipped with a microphone to help scientists better understand characteristics such as the hardness of the rock. PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) helps to identify the chemical composition of rocks and debris, and Sherlock (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) plays a role in discovering organic matter and minerals. do. RIMFAX (Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment) uses radar radio waves to investigate the geographic features of Mars’ underground space, and MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer) provides information on Mars’ weather, climate, ultraviolet radiation from the surface, dust, and more. .
Persivirance is also equipped with a device called’MOXIE Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment’. Moxy can produce oxygen in Mars’ pale atmosphere made of carbon dioxide. Oxygen production is an essential technology for human survival on Mars in the future.
The Persistence Rover also carries a helicopter, Ingenuity, on the ship. Ingenuity will attempt humanity’s first flight in outer space. If the flight is successful, it is expected that it will be able to perform tasks such as aerial reconnaissance or air delivery when exploring Mars in the future.
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