A new rover built by Nasa and named Perseverance will land on Mars in February 2021 using the “sky crane” method. A giant parachute and rocket motors will slow down the descent of the mission before the rover is lowered to the surface using cables.
Perseverance – a six-wheeled robotic machine with 23 cameras and a drill – will look for signs of old life in a large crater called Jezero. It will collect rock and soil samples that appear to have been altered by contact with microorganisms.
The rover will store its monsters in metal containers, but leave them behind on the Mars surface to continue its mission. With Perserverance’s plutonium-based power supply, the robber can roam around Mars for ten years or more.
Later this decade – after 2026 – a second, smaller rover, to be built by the European Space Agency (ESA), will arrive on Mars. This “fetch-rover” will move across the surface and pick up the sample containers left by Perseverance.
The containers are loaded into a protective container and placed in a small rocket – the Mars Ascent Vehicle or MAV. This will blow the air and place the container in orbit around Mars.
The sample holder will meet in orbit and be captured by a European satellite. This ‘return orbit’ will act like a cargo ship and bring valuable rock and soil samples back to earth.
We do not expect the satellite to be sent into Earth’s atmosphere to land in North America until at least 2031, by the time the sample container is packed in a heavily protected capsule.
Scientists will then study the rocks and soil using advanced techniques, including some that have yet to be discovered because there must be enough material to investigate for decades to come. The samples will shed light on the history of Mars and whether it has ever supported microbial life forms.