NASA’s Perseverance rover has reached a pivotal moment in its search for evidence of past life on Mars.
The car-sized robot, which landed on the red planet in February last year, will begin today (Tuesday) to climb up an ancient delta in search of sampling sites that may contain ancient microbes and organic matter.
This climb is for reconnaissance, as Perseverance takes a tour, looking for rocks that have the best chance of holding secrets about whether extraterrestrial life once existed on Mars.
On the way back down, the rover will then collect some of these specimens from Jezero Crater, leaving the samples at the bottom of the delta for future missions to salvage.
NASA’s Perseverance rover (pictured) has reached a pivotal moment in its search for evidence of past life on Mars. The car-sized robot will begin today climbing an ancient delta in search of sampling sites that may contain ancient microbes and organic matter
The rover will collect rocks from Jezero Crater (pictured) and leave the samples at the base of the delta for future missions to retrieve
PERSEVERANCE ROVER COMES WITH 23 CAMERAS
There are 23 cameras mounted on the Perseverance Rover, including:
Nine technical cameras, seven science cameras and seven for entry, descent and landing.
The technical cameras provide detailed information in color about the terrain that the rover must traverse.
They measure the ground for safe driving, check the condition of the hardware and provide support with sampling.
There are hazcams for hazard detection and navcams for navigation.
Science cameras record in more detail and can even capture 3D images.
The Mastcam-Z on a 2 meter arm has a zoom function to focus on distant objects and can film videos.
The Supercam fires a laser at mineral targets out of range of the rover arm to analyze the chemical composition of the rock.
The US space agency wants these rocks returned to Earth in the 2030s so they can be subjected to detailed analysis.
Scientists hope they will not only provide answers about possible ancient life on the Red Planet, but also reveal more about the Martian climate and how it evolved.
“The delta at Jezero Crater promises to be a true geological feast and one of the best places on Mars to look for signs of past microscopic life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
“The answers are out there – and Team Perseverance is ready to find them.”
Several miles wide, the fan-shaped delta formed where an ancient river emptied into the lake that once filled Jezero Crater.
Rising more than 40 meters above the crater floor and filled with jagged cliffs, angled surfaces, protruding boulders and sand-filled pockets, the delta promises numerous geological revelations — perhaps even evidence that microscopic life existed on Mars billions of years ago .
Imperial College London missiologist Professor Sanjeev Gupta explained why experts were hopeful, saying rivers flowing into a delta bring nutrients helpful for life, while the fine-grained sediment is good for conservation.
Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18, 2021 after a nearly seven-month journey through space and made its first test drive a little over two weeks later.
It has spent the past few days maneuvering itself to an “entrance” to the delta called the Hawksbill Gap.
This gentle incline brings the six-wheeled robot tens of feet above the crater floor.
With a drill at the end of its robotic arm and a complex sample collection system, Perseverance will then collect rock cores for return to Earth – the first part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.
This artist’s rendering shows Jezero Crater as it might have looked as a lake billions of years ago
The drill hole from Perseverance’s second sampling attempt last year can be seen in a rock in this image released by NASA
After collecting eight rock core samples from its first scientific campaign and a record-breaking 31 Martian days (or sol) sprint across approximately 5 kilometers (3 miles) of Mars, Perseverance reached the doorstep of the ancient river of the Jezero Crater Delta on March 13.
The site, nicknamed “Three Forks” by the Perseverance team (a reference to the point where three route options to the Delta converge), serves as a staging point for the rover’s second scientific expedition, the “Delta Front Campaign”.
“We’ve been remotely monitoring the delta for more than a year while exploring the crater floor,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance Project Scientist at Caltech in Pasadena.
“At the end of our rapid traverse, we’re finally able to get close to it and are getting increasingly detailed images that show where we can best explore these important rocks.”
Scientists hope they will not only provide answers about possible ancient life on the Red Planet, but also reveal more about the Martian climate and how it evolved
The rover is expected to collect about eight samples over about half an Earth year during the Delta Front campaign.
Perseverance is then expected to shed its first accumulation of rocks from the delta when it returns to the crater floor later this year.
After the descent is complete, current plans are for the robot to climb the delta again—possibly via a different, uncharted route—to begin the “Delta Top Campaign,” which will also last about half an Earth year.
“The delta is why Perseverance was sent to Jezero Crater: it has so many interesting properties,” Farley said.
“We will look for signs of old life in the rocks at the foot of the delta, rocks that we believe were once mud at the bottom of Lake Jezero.
“Further up in the delta, we can see sand and rock fragments that came from upstream, perhaps from miles away. These are places the rover will never visit.
“We can take advantage of an ancient Martian flow that has brought us the planet’s geological secrets.”
NASA MARS 2020: PERSEVERANCE ROVER AND INGENUITY HELICOPTER SEARCH FOR LIFE ON THE RED PLANET
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission was launched to look for signs of ancient life on the red planet to help scientists better understand how life on Earth evolved in the earliest years of the solar system’s evolution Has.
The main rover, named Perseverance, is exploring an ancient river delta in the Jezero Crater, which was once filled with a 1,600-foot-deep lake.
The region is thought to have harbored microbial life around 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago, and the rover will examine soil samples to look for evidence of life.
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover (artist’s rendering) is searching for signs of ancient life on Mars to help scientists better understand how life evolved on our own planet
The $2.5 billion (£1.95 billion) Mars 2020 spacecraft launched on July 30 with the rover and helicopter inside – and landed successfully on February 18, 2021.
Perseverance has landed in the crater and will slowly collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth for further analysis.
A second mission will fly to the planet and bring back the samples, perhaps in late 2020s in collaboration with the European Space Agency.
This concept art depicts the Mars 2020 rover landing on the Red Planet via NASA’s Sky Crane system