Dr. Eleni Vardoulaki
Universe in your pocket
ed. Key books, 2022, P. 192
It is the perseverance of the human species and the endless thirst for research that makes it step by step to conquer the impossible, even in the most difficult times, in the midst of a pandemic. This perseverance of his is one of his greatest virtues. And here is this vehicle on the surface of the planet Mars!
Perseverance, “perseverance” in Greek, with its unique landing on the red planet, gave us moments of excitement and made us forget the routine at least for a while.
Perseverance is a spacecraft designed by NASA to search for traces of microbial life on Mars. Life that once existed when water flowed over its surface. Perseverance will also study the climate and geology of Mars, and test technologies for future robotic and manned missions to the red planet.
The vehicle is about the size of a car (3 meters long, 2.7 meters wide and 2.2 meters high) and weighs around 1,000 kg, which is slightly heavier than the Curiosity. Landing was made possible thanks to new technologies that helped the car land exactly at the right point. 7 minutes in the atmosphere before landing is very important. If something goes wrong, if the parachute doesn’t open, if it doesn’t slow down enough, if it doesn’t land properly, then the end credits will roll.
The spacecraft begins to enter the atmosphere of Mars at a speed of 19,500 kilometers per hour! And it should reach 0 kilometers per hour on the surface. The 7 minutes of horror, as the landing process is usually called, is very important because no one can interfere. The vehicle is alone because it takes so long to transmit a signal from Mars to Earth.
The place where he landed is no accident. Scientists believe that in the past, the 45 km diameter Lake Lake crater, in which he landed, was once a lake in the region of the river delta. A promising place to discover microbial life that once existed on the red planet, but also the most difficult place to land so far due to the special geology.
As we have already said, its main mission is to find traces of life and take samples of rocks and regolith (a mixture of rubble and dust found on Earth, the Moon and Mars, as well as asteroids).
Source: Kathimerini
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