Being March, it seems fitting that we talk about Mars. [Note: if you’re interested in where the months got their names, here’s a short article on Month Names.]
But really, the first couple of months of the year have seen some significant events in the robotic exploration of Mars. Currently, NASA has two, count them, two car-sized rovers operating on the Red Planet.
After 11 years of science operations, Curiosity continues to explore Gale Crater, and Perseverance has been exploring Jezero Crater for two years. Hard to believe it’s been two years since we celebrated Perseverance landing with its sidekick, Ingenuity, The Mars Helicopter.
[Image Credit: https://mars.nasa.gov/layout/helicopter/images/PIA24583-500.gif ]
So, what’s been going on, Mars-wise?
Ingenuity clocked five flights, bringing the total to 46, covering ~6.3 miles (a little over 10 kilometers). Quite an accomplishment for the scientist and engineers considering the original mission was a proof of concept – could it be done?
Perseverance completed its sample collection and backup caching operations in January and is now headed to the ancient river delta to continue its search for evidence of life on Mars in the past. The backup cache will be picked up by the future sample return mission, planned to include two helicopters. If Perseverance cannot rendezvous with that future lander and transfer the samples it has stored onboard, the helicopters will be dispatched to retrieve the backup sample tubes. Just imagine that. NASA and the ESA will send a lander with two helicopters, retrieve sample tubes, load them in a small rocket, launch it to orbit, rendezvous with an orbiter and then return the samples to Earth for study. Audacious, to say the least. I can’t wait to see the results. We might get the samples back by 2033. Watch this space.
[Image Credit: https://mars.nasa.gov/system/news_items/main_images/8936_First_selfie_animation_1200.jpg ]
In February, Curiosity found unexpected evidence of a watery past on Mars. Why unexpected? The Curiosity science team had expected the area to be drier.
Curiosity continues to explore regions that evidence the existence of free-flowing water in Mars’s distant past, including a valley, Gediz Vallis, that might have been partially eroded by a small river.
[Image Credit: https://mars.nasa.gov/system/internal_resources/details/original/1542_PIA25732-FigureA-web.jpg ]
If you’d like to learn more about what’s going on with the rovers, etc., check out these resources:
Mars Helicopter – https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/
Perseverance and Curiosity (and other missions) – https://mars.nasa.gov/news/
Sample Return Mission – https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/multimedia/videos/?v=523 (This video is pretty cool, almost science fiction!)
Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cool + for the post