Last words for the long journey of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which at 21.55 tomorrow will release Perseverance on Mars, the fifth NASA rover and the seventh so far arrived on the red planet since the beginning of space exploration. Perseverance is an expected arrival, destined to explore the basin of the ancient lake in which it will land, the Jazeero crater, in search of traces of past or present life. Accompanying the rover is the small Ingenuity drone-helicopter, destined to become the first machine of its kind to fly to a planet other than Earth.
Curiosity and enthusiasm are also felt in Italy where the Italian Amateur Astronomers Union (Uai) has organized the Mars Nights; observation evenings dedicated to Mars, with lectures and guided observations with telescopes aimed at the red planet.
Perseverance, the NASA mission flying to Mars
Marini Matteo
Launched on June 30, 2020, the Mars 2020 mission of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the third to reach Mars in ten days, after the United Arab Emirates Hope mission and China’s Tianwen-1. It will then be the first to release a rover on Martian soil, considering that the other mission planned to do so, the Tianwen-1, will only do so in May. In the next 10 years – with space missions between 2020 and 2030 – the Mars Sample Return program aims, for the first time in history, to collect rock and dust samples from the surface of Mars to then analyze them on Earth.
An Italian solar drone for missions to Mars
The mission includes a lot of technology from Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%). The ESA probes currently in orbit around the red planet, Thales points out, are following the landing stages, providing important data. Mars Express, the first European Martian company with a key role of Thales Alenia Space, “is already keeping an eye on the conditions in the final destination of Perseverance, the Jezero crater. While the Tgo orbiter of the Esa-Roscosmos ExoMars mission built by Thales Alenia Space will provide data approximately 4 hours after landing, and will try to photograph the rover in the following weeks. “
After a journey of 3.9 million kilometers, the vehicle is in good condition, NASA detects, and the landing can be confirmed on schedule.