Importance of Perseverance Mission on Mars

Synopsis: The Perseverance mission on Mars will test out technologies to help sustain the presence of humans there.  Further, it will help the future manned mission to Mars along with several other important experiments.

Introduction 

The scientific community is suspecting that life may have existed on Mars before Earth. Thus, there might be a possibility of microscopic life on the planet. Understanding this will enhance our studies of evolution and nurture of life outside the earth.

Landing of Perseverance rover:

1. NASA’s mission on Mars has focused on finding traces and trails of water. The water may be related to the possible existence of life on the planet.
2. The curiosity rover which landed on Mars in 2012 found out regions that could have hosted life. 
3. The recent NASA mission, Mars 2020, landed on the Jezero Crater in Mars on February 18.

What does the new Mars mission aim to do?

The mission is expected to last at least the duration of one Mars year, i.e. 687 earth days.  The goals for this mission are to look for signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples.

1. Perseverance will take the investigation made by the earlier Curiosity rover to the next level by studying the Jezero Crater. This particular crater was chosen because it was found to be home to an ancient delta according to an aerial study.
   •  Clay minerals and carbonates were found on the crater. It makes this crater a good place to search for life’s existence. 
2. The rover will study the geology of mars and store samples in a place that can be accessed by a future mission.
3. The rover will test out technologies that will help to sustain the presence of humans in future. This includes testing an instrument that extracts oxygen from atmospheric carbon dioxide. 
4. The rover carries a helicopter named Ingenuity. Ingenuity is specially designed to fly in Mars’s thin atmosphere. Its only purpose would be to demonstrate flight on Mars.

The conclusion 

• Perseverance Mission will be able to answer whether little green microbes did inhabit Mars in the distant past or not. But till then we have to wait and watch the progress.

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