Perseverance on Mars
Mar. 1—Humans are quite adaptable creatures.This thought occurred to me while watching a team of NASA scientists land thePerseverance Rover on the surface of Mars. The Perseverance Rover's job is to seek signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for a possible return to Earth. The rover has five tasks while on the surface of Mars: to explore a geologically diverse landing site, assess ancient habitability, seek signs of ancient life, gather rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth by a future NASA mission, and demonstrate technology for future robotic and human exploration.
According to NASA's Mars 2020 Mission website, the Perseverance launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on July 30, 2020.
Perseverance or "Percy" as the rover has been nicknamed, is the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA. When it landed on the surface of Mars, it became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars. Over the next two years, Percy, as the rover is nicknamed, will use its seven-foot arm to drill down and collect rock samples containing possible signs of bygone microscopic life. The Perseverance landed at the Jezero Crater, a five-by-four-mile strip on an ancient river delta full of pits, cliffs and rocks. The duration of the Perseverance's mission is for at least one Mars year or 687 Earth days.
The shocking discovery I made while researching this column? I have been in quarantine from the COVID-19 pandemic for 337 days, 133 more Earth days than it took the rover to reach Mars. Well, aside from that terrifying thought, the landing of the Perseverance Rover is an amazing feat of science.
A coworker and I chatted about how nerve-wracking it must be to spend so much time, effort, and money on one device, and one shot at landing it on the surface of the "Red Planet."
In a moment we will no doubt look back on in history, a team of NASA scientists landed the "Perseverance" on Mars, all coordinating among locations all over Earth and space, via muffled voices behind double masks. I wondered if they were saddened that their cheers were muffled as the rover set down. Honestly, I doubt they were paying attention to their masks in that joyous moment.
It often feels as if the world has come to a standstill, waiting for our dose of the vaccine and a return to normalcy. Honestly, I am not sure what normal would even look like after a year of this, but the world still turns. NASA scientists calculated Earth's turn on its axis to be able to land the rover 127.76 million miles away from us, on Mars.
Humans have been adapting to life on Earth since the very beginning. Every time our species figures out how to function on this small blue dot, our environment throws us another curveball, but we continue to adapt and expand in new and innovative ways. Perhaps, if we continue to work together and adapt, we will continue to accomplish such feats as the Perseverance Rover.
— Contact Emily Rice at erice@bdtonline.com and follow her on Twitter @BDTrice
