NASA has written a new chapter of humanity's journey to Mars and beyond. After years of planning and development, NASA has finally launched the Perseverance Mars Rover & Ingenuity helicopter successfully on their journey to Mars.?
The NASA Mars Mission spacecraft blasted off an Atlas V rocket with a 100% launch record and is scheduled to arrive on Mars on February 18, 2021.
NASA head Jim Bridenstine said earlier that Mars and Earth are closest to each other only once in 26 months, so missing today's 2 hour launch window would've been a big blow postponing the launch for 2022.?
If NASA Mars Mission 2020 of sending Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity Helicopter to our neighbouring planet would've been aborted, it would have meant storing the rover and helicopter for over two more years, which would've cost NASA about $500 million -- which would've been a huge cost on the NASA budget.
The two NASA exploration vehicles -- Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity Helicopter -- are expected to be on Mars for one whole Martian year which is approximately 687 Earth days. The primary objective of this Mars mission is to denote how life existed on the Martian surface, if it ever did, as well as seek existing life forms if any and sending back a sample to earth in 2026.?
This NASA Mars Mission 2020 will essentially help in continuing to create a foundation for the possibility of future human life on Mars. The Perseverance rover is also capable of collecting samples and storing them in hermetically sealed tubes which will be collected by future manned missions on the Martian surface.?
The Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter were manufactured in a sterile factory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Perseverance rover specifically is loaded with a plethora of equipment and sensors that will constantly provide data about Mars.?
The latest Perseverance Mars rover has a total of 23 cameras, two microphones that allow capture of Martian winds. The rover also has lasers onboard -- not to fight with aliens it comes across but to be used for chemical analysis.
The rover was named by a suggestion provided by a middle school student, Alex Mather, from Fairfax County, Virginia, where people around the world voted for his suggestion in an online contest.
Ingenuity, on the other hand, is a mini helicopter. If successful. this will be the first aircraft to fly on the Martian surface. The aircraft was designed by IIT Alum Bob Balram and was tested in a vacuum chamber at JPL to make the helicopter ready for the low-atmosphere of the Martian surface.?
Constructed with state-of-the-art materials like carbon fibre for added strength and light-weightiness, Ingenuity is capable of withstanding extreme cold temperatures thanks to better insulation along with onboard heaters to protect electronics, it also powers itself from solar energy.
Here's to a whole new era of human ingenuity and continued space exploration of Mars. Congrats to NASA and all of us!