NASA’s robotic vehicle called Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18 this year.

The mission began with the spacecraft taking off on July 30, 2020. Things were difficult for the mission due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which delayed preparations. Until the beginning of April, it was not yet certain whether the mission would take place. The other concern was that missions to Mars could begin every 26 months when the positions of the planets Earth and Mars are such that they allow missions to begin.

The Perseverance is the most advanced vehicle ever sent to the Red Planet. Its size is like that of a car, it has six wheels and weighs 1025 kg. The whole project cost was 2.7 billion US dollars.

The spacecraft entered the planet’s atmosphere at a speed of 19,500 km / h and used a parachute to reduce its speed. However, due to the fact that the atmosphere of Mars has a density of only 1% compared to the density of the Earth’s atmosphere, the parachute could not significantly reduce its speed. So he activated the jet engines at his disposal to achieve his goal and land at the ideal speed.

The mission also includes a small helicopter weighing 1.8 kg which will examine whether a helicopter can fly effectively into the atmosphere of the planet. If this experiment succeeds then the helicopters will be very useful in exploring the planet.

The mission will last several years and aims to find signs of a past life and collect soil samples that will come to Earth for inspection.

[Source: http://www.space.com]