NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is currently working hard on Mars collecting data and taking pictures. This is the fifth rover NASA has sent to Mars. It made its successful landing on February 18th after being launched seven months prior in July. The rover’s name “Perseverance” was named by seventh grader Alexander Mather.  NASA held an essay competition where students form all over the world could submit essays on what they think the rover should be named. Mather chose the word perseverance because as he wrote in his essay, “We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere.” This is especially true now as we are fighting our way through the pandemic. 

While Mather named the rover, people were able to put their name on the rover. Onboard there are names of 11 million earthlings. People were able to send their name to Mars through NASA’s “Send Your Name to Mars” campaign. The names were written on three separate chips the size of fingernails. If you missed signing up to get your name on this rover you can still sign up for the next mission. 

The rover landed on the Jezero Crater. This site was chosen because scientists believe that the crater used to be filled with water making it a good place to look for ancient microbial life.  The data collected during this mission can help scientists and astronomers further the understanding of Mars and our solar system. IU professor and researcher Dr. Songhu Wang was thrilled by this mission and its successful landing. What surprised Dr. Wang the most was the landing of the rover because much of the landing was not controlled by the team back on earth but by the rover making autonomous decisions. 

While the landing was an exciting look at engineering technology the data from the Mars rover and further research on Mars can also help further his studies and research of his own.  Dr. Wang’s research focuses on exoplanetary systems, or planet systems outside of our solar system. The data can help Wang relate the formation of our solar system to others.

While humans have had successful rover missions on the moon and Mars there have yet to be successful trips to Venus or Jupiter. While this may seem far-fetched Dr. Wang gives his thoughts on the matter.

As work is being done to get to Venus and Jupiter, Perseverance will be working on Mars. It is set to last at least one Mars year or 687 Earth days, and it is able to have power for this long by using the natural radioactive decay of plutonium to generate power. 

Although the rover is able to collect the samples from the surface it is unable to transfer the samples back to earth.  A mission at another time will have the potential to collect the samples. For now we have our imagination about what life could have existed on Mars.

 To keep up with the latest news about Perseverance check out this website.