Persevering Through The Stars

On Jul. 30, 2020 NASA’s Perseverance rover launched for Mars on board a ULA Atlas V launch vehicle, and landed on Martian soil on February 18, 2021. The rover’s landing was the most accurate to date, with it landing extremely close to its expected landing site on the Jezero Crater. Within minutes of the rover landing, Perseverance sent back its first images of Mars from its hazard cameras. The extraordinary landing of this rover will serve as a starting point for years of future exploration and research to come.

The rover could have many unique firsts in its mission. Perserverance’s mission was the first mission meant to find evidence of alien life on the surface of Mars. It will do this by looking for past signs of life and search for biosignatures on Mars. The amount of oxygen on Mars would most likely be a priority since it would be the first possible sign of life on Mars and it would also be an important step in preparing humans for possibly going to Mars. The rover will also collect soil samples which will then be left on Mars for a future mission to pick up. Additionally, it would also be the first Mars rover to carry along with it an unmanned helicopter. This helicopter, named Ingenuity, would conduct several test flights as an early step to see whether or not the aerial vehicles will be flown in the future. These flights would also be the first flights on another planet.

Along with the extraordinary firsts in its mission, this landing also marked the first time a landing has been recorded. Previous rovers only had cameras to take photos of the surface of Mars, or in the Curiosity rover, to take selfies. This time however, Perseverance did have cameras that would be expressly for recording its own landing. The footage shows the rover deploying its parachute, dropping a heat shield, and ends with a top down view of the rover safely landing on the Jezero Crater, complete with audio of a cheering crew of NASA flight controllers.

https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/22/world/mars-rover-new-video-images-scn-trnd/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-releases-new-perseverance-pictures-including-its-final-descent-n1258381
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/22/perseverance-video-mars-rover-landing-audio-released-nasa/4548132001/