Perseverance Is Headed to Mars!

Today the United States launched its Mars 2020 Rover, Perseverance, aboard an Atlas V Rocket, making the U.S. the third nation, after the United Arab Emirates and China, to launch a mission to the red planet in the month of July. Although the United States has a long history on Mars, and this is, as the saying goes, “not our first rodeo,” the Perseverance Mars mission will demonstrate several new technologies that will be used on this rover for the first time. Most notably the Perseverance Rover has launched with it a 4-pound Ingenuity helicopter that will demonstrate, for the first time, powered flight on Mars. The rover will also have precision cameras and a microphone on board that will allow us to see the entry, descent, and landing of the rover, as well as to hear it when it lands on the Martian surface. The mission will be the first to perform astrobiology to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, and collect rock samples on Mars to be sent back to Earth with a daring sample return mission. The rover is also equipped with a hazard avoidance capability that will also allow for precision landing with cameras that will allow the rover to be diverted from hazardous landing areas. How exciting!