The US space agency Nasa and SpaceX have just sent space travelers from the United States into space for the first time, and the next spectacular and eagerly awaited start is just around the corner: "Perseverance" is intended to launch a new rover to Mars.
Cape Canaveral (dpa) - "Call me Perseverance," says the Twitter profile of the next Mars rover of the US space agency Nasa. Hobbies: taking pictures, collecting stones and driving off-road. "
In July, the roughly 1000 kilogram unmanned rover the size of a small car is set to launch on Mars - "driven by searching for traces of past life, testing new technologies for the future of human exploration and collecting the first stone samples that will be used again Earth should be brought back ".
Around two months after the launch of "CrewDragon", with which Nasa, together with the private space company SpaceX, transported US astronauts from the United States to the International Space Station ISS for the first time in nine years, the next person will be involved in the "Perseverance" mission Excitement awaited spectacular launch from Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida.
The start is currently scheduled for July 17. If technology or weather should not play along, further attempts would be possible until August 5. Observers had previously feared that the Corona crisis could upset the schedule. The landing in Jezero Crater, a dry lake on Mars, which has never been investigated on site, is scheduled for February 2021.
Its name, which means "perseverance" in German, has "Perseverance" from a seventh grader from the US state of Virginia who proposed it to NASA. The $ 2.5 billion robot had previously been designed and built under the working title "Mars 2020" for around eight years. On board, the rover has not only a lot of technology, but also the names of almost eleven million people they sent in after a corresponding call, burned on three fingernail-sized chips.
"Perseverance" would already be the fifth rover that NASA would bring to Mars. The "Sojourner" landed in 1997 and only communicated with the earth for about three months. In 2004 the twin rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" followed. Communication with "Spirit" was lost in a huge dust storm in 2007, "Opportunity" suffered the same fate in 2018. In 2012 "Curiosity" landed, whose team has since provided scientists and fans with news and photos via social networks, making the robot a favorite with the public. Among other things, the stationary NASA lander "InSight" made it to Mars in 2018, and several probes orbit around the red planet.
"Perseverance" is a kind of "Curiosity 2.0" - including 7 scientific instruments, 2 microphones, 23 cameras, a laser and even a small helicopter on board. The good and bad experiences of all previous missions brought the NASA scientists together in the "Perseverance" planning - but Mars missions remain a major challenge. The landings in particular are considered to be extremely difficult; only around 40 percent of all Mars missions launched worldwide have been successful. In 2016, for example, the "Schiaparelli" probe from the European space agency Esa crashed as a result of a computer error during the approach.
While the coronavirus pandemic and mass protests against racism and police brutality are keeping the world on their toes, NASA is optimistic about Perseverance's Mars mission - as Rover colleague "Curiosity" stressed on Twitter: "Now more than ever needed we perseverance. "
NASA Information
