Thursday, the scientific community of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) will have their eyes riveted on Mars, to follow the landing of the Perseverance rover, after six months of travel.
The main mission of this rover is to search for traces of past life on the side of the Jezero crater.
Despite its closure since the end of October, the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse offers the public the opportunity to experience this landing live on its site, in partnership with CNES and CNRS.
The facilitators of the establishment will explain the challenges of this mission, in particular thanks to a Perseverance robot, in real size and mobile.
Detect fossil bacteria
Because the scientists of the Pink City were very involved in this space mission, equipping this new rover with the main Supercam instrument (telescope, laser and imager) and a microphone that will, for the first time, send sound from March.
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"With its six mobile driving wheels, Perseverance aims to find life on Mars, dating from the time when it appeared on Earth, three billion years ago," explains Xavier Penot, scientific mediator at the Cité. from space.
The crater where it will land keeps track of an old delta where there was water.
With its microscopic cameras and instruments, the idea is to detect fossil bacteria, to distinguish the nature of the soil and its composition.
The Supercam allows for example to analyze rocks from a distance and the microphone to hear the wind, the sound of sand but also to know more about the density of rocks.
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In June, the Cité de l'Espace will open a large Martian field on which the public can observe the Perseverance robot and Tianwen-1, a Chinese rover.
Click to follow Perseverance landing.
