NASA’s Perseverance Rover
Saanvi Kunisetty
NASA’s mission, named “Mars 2020”, sent the Perseverance rover to Mars in order to search for signs of ancient life on the planet, and collect samples of rock and soil in order for further inspection on Earth. Launched on July 30th, 2020, it finally landed on the 18th of this month at the Jezero Crater, with much success.
Specifically, the rover is searching for signs for ancient microbial life to try and prove that Mars was indeed once habitable. It has many useful and well-developed technologies, such as the SUPERCAM (a laser micro-imager), MASTCAM-Z (zoomable panoramic cameras), MEDA (a weather station), SHERLOC (an ultraviolet spectrometer), WATSON (a camera), PIXL (an X-ray spectrometer), RIMFAX (a subsurface radar), and MOXIE (which can produce oxygen from the CO2 found on Mars).
Perhaps the most intriguing piece of technology that the rover carries is the Mars Helicopter. It is there for more of an experiment that will occur in the Spring of 2021. For 30 days, Ingenuity (the name of the helicopter), will be testing powered flight on a different planet for the first time in history.
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