• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
No Result
View All Result
1
Home Sci-tech

NASA’s astrobiology rover Perseverance makes historic Mars landing

18 February 2021, 11:25 PM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
NASA scientists have described Perseverance as the most ambitious of nearly 20 US missions to Mars dating back to the Mariner spacecraft's 1965 fly-by.

NASA scientists have described Perseverance as the most ambitious of nearly 20 US missions to Mars dating back to the Mariner spacecraft's 1965 fly-by.

Image: Reuters

NASA scientists have described Perseverance as the most ambitious of nearly 20 US missions to Mars dating back to the Mariner spacecraft's 1965 fly-by.

NASA’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.

Mission managers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero Crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed.

The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, covering 472 million km before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 19 000 km per hour to begin its approach to touchdown on the planet’s surface.

Monitoring Nasa’s Mars Rover Perseverance with Prof. Lerothodi Leeuw:

The spacecraft’s self-guided descent and landing during a complex series of maneuvers that NASA dubbed “the seven minutes of terror” stands as the most elaborate and challenging feat in the annals of robotic spaceflight.

“It really is the beginning of a new era,” NASA’s associate administrator for science, Thomas Zurbuchen, said earlier in the day during NASA’s webcast of the event.

The landing represented the riskiest part of two-year, $2.7 billion endeavor whose primary aim is to search for possible fossilised signs of microbes that may have flourished on Mars some 3 billion years ago, when the fourth planet from the sun was warmer, wetter and potentially hospitable to life.

Scientists hope to find bio signatures embedded in samples of ancient sediments that Perseverance is designed to extract from Martian rock for future analysis back on Earth – the first such specimens ever collected by humankind from another planet.

Two subsequent Mars missions are planned to retrieve the samples and return them to NASA in the next decade.

Thursday’s landing came as a triumph for a pandemic-weary United States in the grips of economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 public health crisis.

NASA scientists have described Perseverance as the most ambitious of nearly 20 US missions to Mars dating back to the Mariner spacecraft’s 1965 fly-by.

Larger and packed with more instruments than the four Mars rovers preceding it, Perseverance is set to build on previous findings that liquid water once flowed on the Martian surface and that carbon and other minerals altered by water and considered precursors to the evolution of life were present.

Perseverance’s payload also includes demonstration projects that could help pave the way for eventual human exploration of Mars, including a device to convert the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into pure oxygen.

The box-shaped tool, the first built to extract a natural resource of direct use to humans from an extraterrestrial environment, could prove invaluable for future human life support on Mars and for producing rocket propellant to fly astronauts home.

Another experimental prototype carried by Perseverance is a miniature helicopter designed to test the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet.

If successful, the 1.8-kg helicopter could lead to low-altitude aerial surveillance of distant worlds, officials said.

The daredevil nature of the rover’s descent to the Martian surface, at a site that NASA described as both tantalizing to scientists and especially hazardous for landing, was a momentous achievement in itself.

The multi-stage spacecraft carrying the rover soared into the top of Martian atmosphere at nearly 16 times the speed of sound on Earth, angled to produce aerodynamic lift while jet thrusters adjusted its trajectory.

A jarring, supersonic parachute inflation further slowed the descent, giving way to deployment of a rocket-powered “sky crane” vehicle that flew to a safe landing spot, lowered the rover on tethers, then flew off to crash a safe distance away.

Perseverance’s immediate predecessor, the rover Curiosity, landed in 2012 and remains in operation, as does the stationary lander In Sight, which arrived in 2018 to study the deep interior of Mars.

Last week, separate probes launched by the United Arab Emirates and China reached Martian orbit.

NASA has three Mars satellites still in orbit, along with two from the European Space Agency.

 

 

Share article
Tags: NASAMarsRed Planet
Previous Post

President Ramaphosa visits bereaved families of children who fell into a hole in Nyanga

Next Post

AstraZeneca vaccine ‘highly effective’ – PEI

Related Posts

A tap with a droplet of water.

UN Water Conference kicks off as world marks World Water Day

22 March 2023, 9:30 PM
Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, the Old Coronation Hospital.

“Report exposes state of Gauteng public health facilities”

15 March 2023, 11:09 AM
Members of Nehawu on strike

Phaahla links four deaths to Nehawu’s wage strike

9 March 2023, 1:00 PM
Silhouettes of mobile users are seen next to a screen projection of Instagram logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018.

Instagram down for thousands of users globally

9 March 2023, 7:33 AM
[File Image]: A nurse at one of South Africa's hospital during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Patients suffer as health workers strike

9 March 2023, 7:30 AM
A representation of depression

Negative impact of rolling blackouts on mental health

7 March 2023, 5:56 PM
Next Post
The PEI said it had been notified of reports from some clinics of increased sickness among personnel given the AstraZeneca vaccine, with reactions including fever, chills, headache, muscle and limb pain, and a general feeling of illness.

AstraZeneca vaccine 'highly effective' - PEI

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • [Editorial Update] Unisa suspends registrar for various breaches of policy
  • Orlando Pirates player Thembinkosi Lorch found guilty of assault
  • Slain teen Palesa Malatji’s family calls for death sentence to be reinstated
  • Female student stabbed to death at NMU residence
  • Tina Joemat-Pettersson has passed away
  • Dr Nandipha’s looks during court appearances under the spotlight
  • Deadline for Zimbabwean Exemption Permits draws near
  • Reserve Bank expected to increase repo rate on Thursday
  • Zimbabwe receives 18 helicopters from Russian Federation
  • Eastern Cape ActionSA raises eyebrows over qualifications of senior officials
  • Joburg south without water and electricity until further notice: City Power
  • Motsoaledi’s extension of ZEP dispensation welcomed
  • Decision on Zimbabwean Exemption Permits causing confusion: TASA
  • Chitando pushes for permanent residency for ZEP holders
  • Mabuyane amends court application to interdict SIU from continuing investigation

LATEST

Dr Nandipha Magudumana is pictured at the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court on 11 May 2023.
  • Thabo Bester saga
  • South Africa

Dr Nandipha seeks to appeal High Court’s decision to nullify her arrest


Human Settlements Minister, Mamoloko Kubayi  speaks at the UN Habitat Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya.
  • South Africa

South Africa needs to create new cities to address overpopulation: Kubayi


  • Politics

Former Tshwane Mayor asks court to relax travelling hours outside Gauteng


Minister Blade Nzimande briefs media.
  • South Africa

Minister Nzimande launches South African Isotope facility in Cape Town


  • South Africa

KZN teacher to run double Comrades to fund schooling for children


FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Carabao Cup Second Round - Tranmere Rovers v Newcastle United - Prenton Park, Birkenhead, Britain - August 24, 2022 General view as the ball is wiped down with a towel Action Images via Reuters/Carl Recine/File Photo
  • Sport

EFL bans use of towels to dry balls before throw-ins


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2023

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2023

Previous President Ramaphosa visits bereaved families of children who fell into a hole in Nyanga
Next AstraZeneca vaccine ‘highly effective’ – PEI