[Reading Science] The '2-Year-Old' Mars Biologist, Will They Fulfill Musk's Dream?

NASA Mars Rover 'Perseverance' Celebrates 2nd Landing Anniversary
Remarkable Achievements Including Oxygen Production and Sample Collection
Focus on Potential to Discover Martian Life and Advance Terraforming Feasibility

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The two-year-old "Mars Biologist (Perseverance)" continues its search for signs of life alongside its little scout (Ingenuity) today. Will it be able to find evidence of ancient life and increase the feasibility of Elon Musk's dream of Mars terraforming?

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the Mars exploration rover Perseverance marked its 2nd anniversary of landing on the 18th (Eastern Time, USA). About the size of a small car with six wheels and powered by nuclear fuel, Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021, and has shown remarkable exploration achievements over the past two years. Its main goal, true to its nickname "Mars Biologist," is to collect samples from the Martian surface to find traces of ancient life. The Jezero Crater, about 45 km wide, is believed to have been a large lake and river delta billions of years ago when water existed on Mars, making it a place where life might have existed.

Mars exploration rover Perseverance of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) celebrating its 2nd anniversary of landing. Photo by NASA

To achieve this, Perseverance carried 38 titanium sample tubes. Over the past two years, it has filled 18 of these; 15 contain soil and rock samples such as dust, dirt, and gravel, and the remaining 3 are atmospheric samples. Recently, 10 tubes were dropped and stored at the "Three Forks" site in Jezero Crater. This is a Plan B in case the main sample stored on Perseverance is lost or damaged during future retrieval.

Perseverance has independently traveled about 15 km, demonstrating impressive performance. For example, as of the 14th, Perseverance's left wheel had rotated 9,423 times. It has taken and transmitted over 166,000 photos of the Martian surface. Experiments to verify the possibility of human habitation on Mars have also been successfully conducted. Using an instrument called MOXIE, Perseverance succeeded in producing a small amount of oxygen (92.11g) from the Martian atmosphere. This confirmed that if Elon Musk's "Mars terraforming" is realized, oxygen?the most precious resource?can be produced independently. The SuperCam installed on Perseverance fired lasers 230,554 times and successfully recorded Martian sounds 662 times. The RIMFAX instrument, which captures images below the surface, operated 676,828 times. MEDA, which measures Martian weather conditions, recorded meteorological data for 150,769.1 hours.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The "Mars helicopter" Ingenuity, accompanying Perseverance, is also showing remarkable results. Ingenuity, a small unmanned helicopter weighing 1.8 kg, was initially just a test project. It did not use specially developed space parts but utilized existing commercial components. The goal was to see if flying vehicles could be used for exploration on extraterrestrial planets with thin atmospheres like Mars. Initially, five flights were considered a success. However, as of the 16th, it has succeeded in its 43rd flight, achieving unexpected results. On that day, it flew 390 meters, setting the longest flight record in the past 10 months. Including that day, it has flown a total of 8.9 km. NASA uses Ingenuity as a "scout" ahead of Perseverance to collect preliminary information. Encouraged by Ingenuity's success, NASA plans to use two helicopters for the upcoming sample retrieval project.

NASA plans to have Perseverance leave the floor of Jezero Crater and explore the upper layers of the ancient delta. Together with the European Space Agency (ESA), they plan to bring these samples back to Earth for analysis as early as 2033. Around 2027, ESA will launch a Mars orbiter, the first step in the retrieval process.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) stated in a press release marking Perseverance's 2nd landing anniversary, "The core mission is an astrobiology mission to collect samples that may contain traces of ancient microbes," adding, "We will understand the geology and past climate characteristics of Mars and pave the way for human exploration of Mars."