Perseverance: The Mars Rover That Could
Wouldn't it be amazing if life existed on another planet? Scientists are exploring Mars, our neighbor, to find out. Mars is similar to Earth—it's half the size, rocky, and can be pretty chilly! Thanks to a brave space rover named Perseverance, we know more about it than ever before.
WHAT IS A SPACE ROVER?
A space rover is like a car, but made for driving over space terrain. Perseverance is 10 feet long and has six metal wheels made to handle the rocks and red dirt on Mars. It landed on Mars in February, 2021 after flying for seven months! That's one long ride.
Perseverance is the fifth rover that NASA has landed on Mars, and the most high-tech one yet. The United States launched Perseverance in 2020, and it landed a few months before China's Zhurong rover in May.
WHERE DID PERSEVERANCE LAND?
Perseverance landed in what's called the Jezero Crater. Scientists think that this crater was once a huge river, and they want to examine the leftover dirt. In fact, they chose this spot out of 60 options, and thought hard about it for five years!
They chose this spot to look for signs of life. On Earth, where there is water, there is often life. Rivers on our planet have bacteria and bugs, and maybe the Martian river was once home to tiny organisms too. Perseverance will help us study this ancient riverbed.
WHAT HAS PERSEVERANCE FOUND?
The rover is currently sending pictures of the Martian surface back to Earth to be studied. Perseverance has taken hundreds of images already, and anybody can view them! From what we see, the surface has dirt and big rocks, just like some places here on Earth.
In addition, Perseverance is using its drill to collect dirt samples that will be brought back to Earth. But the rover isn't coming back—actually, it plans to leave all its samples in safe spots on the Martian surface! Scientists will then send another spacecraft in a few years to collect all these samples and bring them back.
Once these samples are brought back to Earth, scientists will be one step closer to answering the big question: is there life on Mars?