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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

  • 19 February, 2021

  • 4 Min Read

NASA's Perseverence Rover to Mars

NASA's Perseverence Rover to Mars

After a seven months journey from Earth, the NASA Perseverance is in its final stretch towards the destination Mars.

About the Perseverance rover:

  • Launched in July of 2020.
  • It is expected to touch down on Mars at the Jezero Crater.
  • The primary task of Perseverance is to seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith to possibly return these to Earth.
  • Perseverance is fueled by electrical power by using the heat of plutonium’s radioactive decay.
  • NASA Perseverance gets shape memory alloys to remain steady on the surface of Mars.

Why is this mission significant?

  • Perseverance will carry a unique instrument, MOXIE or Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment which will manufacture molecular oxygen on Mars using carbon dioxide from the carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere (ISRU means In Situ Resource Utilization: or the use of local resources to meet human needs or requirements of the spacecraft).
  • It will carry Ingenuity, the first ever helicopter to fly on Mars. This is the first time NASA will fly a helicopter on another planet or satellite.

Previous Mars Missions by NASA:

  • NASA has been sending rovers to Mars since 1997 when the Mars Pathfinder Mission was initiated.
  • The second time, the space organization sent twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity to Mars in 2003.
  • The third attempt was by sending Curiosity in 2012.

Source: TH


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