Mars Landing Approaches: NASA's Perseverance Rover Nears Main Exhibition on Red Planet
Ready to dive into some Martian adventure? Perseverance, our tenacious rover, is about to bust some moves on the rugged terrain of Jezero Crater's western rim. This spot has got quite the history - evidence of ancient hydrothermal activity is lurking around every corner, making it the perfect hotspot for Percy's next expedition.
Perseverance has been putting in work for the past three and a half years, drilling into rocks, snapping shots of the Martian surface and the Mars helicopter Ingenuity, and collecting rock samples for the future return to Earth. The ultimate goal? Find out if there was ever life on the Red Planet.
Billions of years ago, Mars was a whole different ball game. Liquid water flowed like rivers and filled lakes - quite different from the dry, arid desert we see today. And while liquid water isn't known to exist on the surface anymore, it's a crucial ingredient for us humans (and Martians, if they exist) to live.
But enough about H2O, let's talk rocks. A recent paper published in AGU Advances highlighted the astrobiological potential of the rocks already collected by Perseverance. According to Tanja Bosak, a geobiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of Perseverance's science team, these rock cores could potentially contain the oldest materials ever sampled from a potentially habitable environment.
The upcoming science campaign will see Perseverance conquer slopes of up to 23 degrees and climb about 1,000 feet to reach the summit of Jezero Crater. Its first stop will be Dox Castle, followed by Pico Turquino, and finally Witch Hazel Hill, home to layers of ancient material that date back to when Mars' climate was vastly different from what it is today.
Once Perseverance makes it to the top, it will be in a prime position to unlock new secrets about Mars' ancient history and whatever, if anything, might have once called the Red Planet home. Get ready for some exciting discoveries!
- The upcoming expedition of Perseverance, our tenacious rover, intends to explore the evidence of ancient hydrothermal activity in Jezero Crater, a spot known for its history and advantageous for the rover's mission.
- Perseverance, having spent three and a half years drilling into rocks, taking pictures, and collecting samples, is aiming to uncover whether there was ever life on Mars.
- A recent study published in AGU Advances suggests that the rock cores collected by Perseverance could potentially contain the oldest materials ever sampled from a potentially habitable environment, with astrobiological implications.
- In the future, the discovery of these old materials could help us understand Mars' ancient history and perhaps shed light on whether anything ever existed that called the Red Planet home, billions of years ago when it had conditions more similar to Earth.
