The Young Scientist By AILEEN O’CATHERINE Ships pull into ports to dowmembers, explore interactive exhibits, and experience the G-Shock simulator, which allows riders to feel the rapid acceleration of a space flight. Although the spaceport is a secure facility, there are Open Houses. Check the calendar at spaceportamerica.com/visit/#visitors.Humans have long asked the question: “Is there life on Mars?” More than 40 years ago, NASA set out to find an answer, and sent the Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecraft to the Red Planet to probe for evidence of life. The data from the Viking missions helped scientists realize that Martian soil was nothing like the soil found on Earth. A new understanding of how liquid water may exist on Mars was an important discovery that made scientists want to learn more. NASA launched a follow-up astrobiology mission on July 30, 2020, to seek more information on whether life on Mars ever existed. The Mars 2020 mission will land on Mars in February 2021, containing within it the Perseverance rover, which will be activated after touchdown. The small car-sized robotic rover is tasked with the ongoing mission of looking for signs of life. Attached to Perseverance is a four-pound (1.8 kilograms) helicopter named Ingenuity that will test, for the first time, whether powered flight can occur in the thin atmosphere found on our planetary neighbor. Exploration is learning about the unknown. For the Mars 2020 mission, there will be many unknowns. Will Ingenuity achieve liftoff? The Red Planet has a lower gravity than Earth, about one-third the amount, and an atmosphere that is about 1 percent as thick as Earth’s. Will the helicopter achieve lift under those conditions? Engineers made Ingenuity lightweight to demonstrate flying technology on another planet. But
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NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will store rock and soil samples for future missions to retrieve, as seen in this illustration. Courtesy NASA.
before its test flight, Ingenuity must pass several milestones. Will it survive the launch and landing? Will it safely deploy to the Martian surface from the underbelly of the Perseverance rover? Will it be able to keep warm through the cold Martian nights that dip as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit? If Ingenuity can charge its solar panel and achieve liftoff, will it be able to fly and successfully land? The tiny helicopter will attempt up to four test flights. After that, Perseverance will move on to conduct its science operations. The Perseverance rover builds upon the success of NASA’s Curiosity rover. Since Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012, it has gathered evidence to suggest that salty, shallow ponds once dotted the Gale Crater. Scientists wonder if the ponds on the Gale Crater floor had water 35 billion years ago. If so, were there microbial forms of life? Billions of years ago, Earth and Mars were far more similar than they are today. Both planets had liquid water on the surface, and magnetic fields to protect their surfaces from the Sun’s radiation. If life developed on Earth under those conditions, it’s fair to ask if life also developed on Mars. Perseverance will explore the planet, collecting soil and rock samples that will help scientists back on Earth understand the geology of the Jezero Crater, its landing site, and look for evidence that ancient life may have been left behind. Like the Curiosity rover, Perseverance has a robotic arm that will drill rock and collect samples from materials that have the highest potential to preserve signs of life and planetary evolution. The rover will characterize the Martian climate and geology. But in addition to understanding the climate and geology of Mars, the Mars 2020 team has a mission objective to prepare for future human explorations of the planet. It will conduct investigations to test the feasibility of a Martian outpost. The Martian atmosphere of carbon dioxide will be converted to oxygen, for possible use by astronauts. Martian weather will be studied to determine its effects on human explorers. As the spacecraft descends through the planet’s atmosphere, scientists will study the possibility of landings for future astronauts. Scientists from New Mexico have long played a part in the exploration of Mars. Dr. Larry Crumpler, research curator for volcanology and space science at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, was involved in the Viking Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Exploration rover missions. Roger Wiens of Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico is the principal investigator of the SuperCam located on Perseverance’s mast. The instrument uses pulsed lasers to study the chemistry of rocks and soils. To find out more about Perseverance and its scientific goals, visit Nasa.gov/perseverance.
