NASA Perseverance:
After a seven months’ journey from Earth, the NASA Perseverance is in its final stretch towards destination Mars.
About the Perseverance rover:
- Launched in July of 2020.
- It is expected to touch down on Mars at the Jezero Crater.
- The primary task of Perseverance is to seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith to possibly return these to Earth.
- Perseverance is fueled by electrical power by using the heat of plutonium’s radioactive decay.
- NASA Perseverance gets shape memory alloys to remain steady on the surface of Mars.
- Armed with drills, cameras, and lasers, Perseverance is set to explore Mars.
- Perseverance will carry a unique instrument, MOXIE or Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment: which for the first time will manufacture molecular oxygen on Mars using carbon dioxide from the carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere (ISRU means In Situ Resource Utilization: or the use of local resources to meet human needs or requirements of the spacecraft).
- It will carry Ingenuity, the first-ever helicopter to fly on Mars. This is the first time NASA will fly a helicopter on another planet or satellite.
