CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) – A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet on Thursday, reaching the most risky step ever in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer or life ever on Mars existed.
Ground controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the Space Agency in Pasadena, California, exchanged fists and high fives in triumph – and relief – when they received confirmation that the six-wheeled capability had touched the red planet. incoming spacecraft.
It took 11 1/2 minutes before the signal reached the earth.
“Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars, ready to start looking for signs of past life, ” Swati Mohan, flight controller, announced that colleagues wearing masks against the coronavirus were striking back.
The landing is the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung in a consecutive orbit around Mars last week. All three missions began in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars and covered nearly 300 million kilometers in nearly seven months.
Perseverance, the largest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, each from the US
The car-sized, plutonium-powered vehicle arrived at Jezero Crater and hit NASA’s smallest and most difficult target: a 5 to 4 kilometer strip on an old river delta full of pits, cliffs and rock fields. Scientists believe that if life had ever flourished on Mars, it would have happened three to four billion years ago, when water was still flowing on the planet.
Over the next two years, Percy, as he is nicknamed, will use his 7-foot (2 meter) arm to drill and collect rock samples with possible signs of past microscopic life. Three to four dozen chalk-sized specimens are sealed in tubes and set aside on Mars to be retrieved by a hauling robber and brought home by another rocket. The goal is to get them back as early as 2031.
Scientists hope to answer one of the key questions of theology, philosophy and space exploration.
‘Are we alone in this vast expanse of cosmic desert, are we just flying through space, or is life much more prevalent? Does it only emerge when and where the conditions are ripe? ‘said Deputy Project Scientist Ken Williford. “We are really on the verge of possibly answering these enormous questions.”
The spacecraft in China contains a smaller rover that will also look for evidence of life – if it is safe from orbit in May or June.
Perseverance was on its own during the NASA-described “seven minutes of terror” descent.
Flight controllers waited helplessly as the pre-programmed spacecraft hit the thin atmosphere of 95% carbon dioxide on a Martian atmosphere of 19,100 km / h (19,500 km / h), or 16 times the speed of sound, while slowing down.
It released its 21-meter-long parachute, diverted its heat shield and then used a rocket-operated platform, known as an air crane, to lower the rover the last 18 meters to the surface. The persistence appears to be about 35 feet[35 m]from the nearest rocks.
“Take it, Jezero!” calls out a controller.
Mars was a treacherous place: in 1999, less than three months ago, an American spacecraft was destroyed because engineers mixed metrics and English units, and a U.S. lander crashed on Mars after prematurely cutting out its engines.
Perseverance will conduct an experiment in which small amounts of carbon dioxide are converted into oxygen in the atmosphere, a process that could be a blessing to future astronauts by providing breathable air and an ingredient for rocket fuel.
The wanderer is also equipped with a record of 25 cameras and two microphones, many of which were turned on during downhill. Under the view never seen before, NASA plans to send back the next few days: the enormous supersonic parachute that opens and approaches the ground.
A loop for the eyes and ears. It’s going to be really spectacular, ”said Jim Bell, chief scientist at Arizona State University, for some mast cameras that will serve as the rover’s eyes.
NASA is working with the European Space Agency to bring the rocks home. Perseverance’s mission alone costs nearly $ 3 billion.
The only way to confirm – or eliminate – signs of past lives is to analyze the samples in the best laboratories in the world. Instruments small enough to send to Mars do not have the necessary precision.
“This is actually the most extraordinary, surprisingly complex and future reconnaissance campaign,” said David Parker, director of the European Space Agency’s human and robot reconnaissance agency, before landing.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Division receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.