A Good Look At Perseverance

 There's a lot of action happening around Mars right now.  In February 2021, three new space probes arrived at Mars. The first was Hope Probe, sent by United Arab Emirates, which will orbit Mars and study the planet's atmosphere for an entire Martian year (that's 867 days for scientists back on Earth!) The UAE space agency has an interactive website at this link which updates Hope Probe in real time.

The second probe to arrive in orbit around Mars during February 2021 was Tianwen-1, sent by China. Their orbiter is looking at a potential landing site for their rover, and they hope to land it on Mars in May.

On February 18 NASA landed their own new rover on the red planet, and the rover is called Perseverance. Here's a link to a video about the exciting landing for this robot that will drive around Jezero Crater on Mars like a little remote-controlled car: http://youtu.be/tlTni_HY1Bk 

NASA now has available some audio recordings made on Mars by Perseverance. Check out this link to hear the sound of wind on Mars, or of Perseverance's little laser pinging off nearby rocks. Then look at the banner at the top of the page, where you'll find links to info about the mission, the spacecraft, and more. Download some images, sounds, and videos! There's enough Mars news here to keep any space fan busy learning about Perseverance and other Mars explorers. 

Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Mars 2020 Strategic Mission Manager Pauline Hwang, gives remarks during a NASA Perseverance rover initial surface checkout briefing, Friday Feb. 19, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

At first glance Perseverance looks much like other NASA robot probes that have been rolling around Mars for a while now: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. Check out this article on the science website Phys.org or the academic website The Conversation for good descriptions of all these rover probes.

If it sounds to you like there's a lot of traffic around Mars, you're right! There are six other space probes currently orbiting Mars as well: three are from the United States and its partners in NASA's Mars Odyssey (which has been in Mars orbit for twenty years), Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and MAVEN Orbiter.   
The European Space Agency sent their Mars Express orbiter, which has used radar to determine the possibility of liquid water under the surface of Mars. India sent its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter was sent by a European and Russian partnership.

If you're like me, there are times when you've looked at a photo of a Mars rover and been frustrated because good ol' Opportunity didn't take a photo of itself from the right angle to show you exactly what it looks like from behind, or above, or off to the left. It's possible to get a really good look at Perseverance rover, though! There's a page on NASA's website that has a 3-D image modelling Perseverance. If you click on this link, a page will open with an image of the rover. You'll be able to download the 3-D image, click on it with your computer and pull the image this way and that. You can turn Perseverance around, or upside down, and get a good look at how the camera arm attaches. As well, you can click on this link to see a similar image of Ingenuity, the little helicopter drone that can fly above Perseverance. On March 11th NASA's Mars Helicopter team did a live chat (that you can watch at this link) answering questions about their plans for Ingenuity.

If you're making a piece of art, or an illustration for a school paper, it will be nice to use this 3-D image to move the model into just the exact position you need. Rovers are popular robots to illustrate science fiction stories, and many rovers appear on the covers of science fiction books or magazines. 

Here's a little rover that appeared on issue 6 of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine. Artist Stephanie Ann Johanson designed the cover with a digital drawing of a robot on the moon. The image was inspired by the third story in issue six, Survival Strategies by Vaughan Stanger. Stephanie is an artist, assistant editor and art director of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine. She also has several illustrations and covers designed for many of the magazine's 31 issues.