CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – A NASA rover flew through the orange marsh sky and landed on the planet Thursday, the most risky step yet in an epic quest to return rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars.
Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, cheered and exchanged fists and high-fives in triumph – and relief – when they received confirmation that the six-wheeled Persistence had hit the red planet, long a death trap. incoming spacecraft.
It took 11 1/2 minutes for the signal to reach Earth.
“Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance safe on the surface of Mars, ready to start looking for signs of a past life, ”flight controller Swati Mohan announced to colleagues wearing masks against the coronavirus.
The landing is the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on consecutive days last week. All three missions were launched in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, covering some 300 million miles in nearly seven months.
Perseverance, the largest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft to land successfully on Mars, all from the US.
The car-sized plutonium-powered vehicle arrived at Jezero Crater and hit NASA’s smallest and trickiest target yet – a 5-by-4-mile stretch on an ancient river delta filled with pits, cliffs, and rocky fields. Scientists believe that if life ever flourished on Mars, it would have happened 3 billion to 4 billion years ago, when water was still flowing over the planet.
Over the next two years, Percy, as the nickname is nicknamed, will use his 6-foot arm to drill down and collect rock samples with possible signs of bygone microscopic life. Three to four dozen chalk-sized monsters will be sealed in tubes and placed on Mars to be picked up by a retrieval rover and taken home by another rocket ship. The goal is to get them back to Earth as early as 2031.
Scientists hope to answer one of the central questions of theology, philosophy and space exploration.
‘Are we alone in this kind of vast cosmic desert, are we just flying through space, or is life much more common? Does it just show up when and where the conditions are right? Deputy Project Scientist Ken Williford said. “We are really on the verge of potentially answering these huge questions.”
China’s spacecraft contains a smaller rover that will also search for evidence of life – if it leaves orbit safely in May or June.
Perseverance was in itself during NASA’s “seven minutes of terror” descent.
Flight controllers waited helplessly as the preprogrammed spacecraft reached the thin 95% carbon dioxide atmosphere on Mars at 12,100 mph (19,500 km / h), or 16 times the speed of sound, and slowed down as it plummeted.
He released his 70-foot (21-meter) parachute, threw off his heat shield, and then used a rocket-propelled platform known as an air crane to lower the rover to the surface for the last 60 feet (18 meters). Perseverance seemed to land about 100 feet from the nearest rocks.
“Take that, Jezero!” shouted a controller.
Mars has turned out to be a treacherous place: In less than three months in 1999, an American spacecraft was destroyed when it entered orbit because engineers swapped metric and imperial units, and an American lander crashed on Mars after its engines ran out switched off.
Perseverance will conduct an experiment in which it converts small amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into oxygen, a process that could be a boon to future astronauts by providing breathable air and an ingredient for rocket fuel.
The rover is also equipped with a record 25 cameras and two microphones, many of which are turned on during the descent. Among the never-before-seen views that NASA plans to send back in the coming days: the massive supersonic parachute opening and closing in on the ground.
“A feast for the eyes and ears. It’s going to be really spectacular, ”noted Jim Bell of Arizona State University, chief scientist for a pair of mast cameras that will serve as the rover’s eyes.
NASA is working with the European Space Agency to bring the rocks home. The Perseverance mission alone costs nearly $ 3 billion.
The only way to confirm – or rule out – signs of a past life is to analyze the samples in the world’s best laboratories. Instruments small enough to be sent to Mars would not have the necessary precision.
“It is truly the most extraordinary, mind-bogglingly complex reconnaissance campaign that will make history,” said David Parker, director of human and robotic exploration for the European Space Agency, on the eve of landing.
The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Department. The AP is solely responsible for all content.