Perseverance is the rover that will greatly expand on what we know about our solar system. Similarly to the way we connected our moon to Earth, the rover will connect Mars to us. Perseverance will give us a look into our past, present, and future by unlocking knowledge about Mars that has been hidden for so long.
“The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet,” according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Barstow students spend a lot of time studying our world and our universe in science classes. It gives students a brief introduction to how our world works. Perseverance can give scientists and scientists alike a deeper understanding of how the world operates.
Getting a view of Mars might give us a clue at what the Earth is headed towards. “Hawking thinks the human species will have to populate a new planet within 100 years if it is to survive,” says Aerospace America in a press release about his TV documentary, “Expedition New Earth.” Aerospace America explains, “With climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics, and population growth, our own planet is increasingly precarious.”
Earth is struggling. Mr. Down’s Earth Science class covers this issue in depth. Learning about other planets and their formations is key to figuring out humanity’s next step. Earth, Venus, and Mars all formed around the same time and started out eerily similar. This is what has the potential to make Perseverance so impactful. Thanks to the rover, we are one step closer to discovering how similar Mars once was to Earth, and if Earth is heading in the same direction as the barren, rocky planet.
Scientists hope that the rover will give us a better understanding of Mars’s climate and environmental conditions, as well as the use of certain technology on a new surface. The rover’s goal is to successfully demonstrate key technologies on the planet. If it succeeds, then those instruments can be used to construct colonies and expand space equipment.
Perseverance, NASA’s Mars rover, launched in July of 2020 and recently landed on February 18, 2021. The car-sized rover touched down in the predicted landing zone, Jezero floor, to see a vast landscape covered in cliffs, sand dunes, and boulder fields. This gave the rover plenty of new terrains to explore and learn. Perseverance was sent to Mars to continue looking for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Everything about the Perseverance mission seemed impossible, but NASA scientists overcame the obstacles and landed Perseverance safely.
“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk.
The rover will be studying geology and climate to try and make human exploration past the Moon possible. NASA picked Jezero floor because the possible life was nearby, even though landing seemed nearly impossible due to its rocky, rough terrain. Jezero crater once may have been home to millions of tiny sea creatures, as it held a 1600ft deep lake.
Currently, Perseverance is exploring the site of an ancient lake called Citadel, located in Jezero Crater. If the sample attempt was truly successful, future missions will return the samples to Earth to be studied by microbiologists in search of any microbial life.
Perseverance plays a vital role in learning not only about our planet’s formation, but the rest of the solar system’s as well. If Mars ever held extraterrestrial life, the Perseverance rover may be able to prove it. Previous probes concluded that water once existed on its rocky surface and possibly sustained extraterrestrial life.
NASA astronomers hope that Perseverance can confirm any signs of life, as NASA’s Curiosity rover already discovered possible evidence of life on Mars. The hope for Perseverance is to finish what Curiosity started: a look into our solar system’s past.
So far, the rover has yet to discover any past signs of life. However, rocks seen by the rover appear as if they were shaped by wind and water, similar to rocks on our own planet.
Perseverance has bigger plans than simply looking at these rocks. On September 2nd, 2021, it possibly collected its first rock sample! According to Ashley Strickand with CNN, “The Perseverance rover successfully drilled into a Martian rock on Thursday, creating an intact core sample that could one day be returned to Earth,” and, “data sent back by the rover and initial images suggest an intact sample was inside the tube after Perseverance drilled into a rock selected by the mission’s science team.”
Jennifer Trosper, project manager for the mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement, “The project got its first cored rock under its belt, and that’s a phenomenal accomplishment. The team determined a location and selected and cored a viable and scientifically valuable rock. We did what we came to do. We will work through this small hiccup with the lighting conditions in the images and remain encouraged that there is [a] sample in this tube.”
The Red Planet is in the “Goldilocks Zone,” meaning that Mars is in the ideal spot for life. Along with Mars, Earth and Venus also reside in this zone. Yet, as far as we know, only Earth harbors life. Perseverance’s missions will dig into our own past, present, and future, to find out what happened along Mars’s timeline, and what led it to this point.
