Buzz
The Perseverance rover has successfully landed. On February 18, NASA's most daring rover to date completed a nearly seven-month journey from Earth, beginning its long-term exploration of the red planet.
Weighing in at a metric ton and with a price tag exceeding $2 billion for its design, construction, and testing, Perseverance has one primary objective: to uncover groundbreaking evidence of ancient life on a planet beyond Earth. Much like the iconic moon landing over 50 years ago, it stands as a powerful symbol of human ingenuity in the face of challenging times.
Here are ten fascinating facts about Perseverance’s mission to Mars.
10. Seven Minutes of Descent into Hell
Luckily for the Perseverance team, the toughest part of the mission is already behind them. This challenge was twofold: the difficulty of landing a rover on another planet, and the fact that the human operators could do nothing to intervene.
As seen in prior Mars missions, the descent takes around seven minutes from when the vehicle enters the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 mph until it touches down. The high-speed descent, combined with the 11-minute delay for radio signals to travel between Earth and Mars, means that the NASA team can only wait and hope.
NASA refers to this as the “seven minutes of terror,” where the blend of immense risk and total helplessness leaves everyone in the control room anxiously wondering if years of work creating the most advanced rover in history will end in a sudden, catastrophic crash.
Perseverance faced two additional challenges. First, at a weight of a metric ton, it was the heaviest rover NASA had ever attempted to land on Mars. Second, its destination – the Jezero Crater, thought to be the best spot to discover signs of ancient microbial life – is a high-risk, high-reward location, full of boulders and steep cliffs.
Fortunately, Perseverance succeeded, thanks to two new technologies that its predecessors lacked. One, a range trigger, enables the rover to determine the optimal moment to deploy its 70-foot parachute. The other, terrain-relative navigation, provides Perseverance with the ability to 'see' and navigate, ensuring a safe landing. Allen Chen, the leader of the mission’s Entry, Descent, and Landing team, believes that Jezero Crater would not have been a viable landing site without these advancements.
9. Searching for Life in All the Right Places
As described by former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine before last year’s launch, Perseverance marks 'the first time in history that we’re going to Mars with a specific mission to find life on another world — ancient life on Mars.'
Indeed, the landing site was selected with the goal of finding evidence of life on Mars – past or present – at the forefront. Perseverance landed in Mars’ Jezero Crater, which spans 28 miles and is thought to have once contained a body of water roughly the size of Lake Tahoe. Jezero also features a major channel leading away from it, suggesting water once flowed in or out of this ancient lake. Based on the crater’s depth, this lake would have likely been hundreds of feet deep.
This water movement has led to a compelling discovery for life-seeking scientists: sediment deposits found across the expansive delta on the crater's bowl-like floor. If microbial life ever existed on Mars, this would be one of the most probable locations. The reasoning is based on the fact that Earth's earliest life forms emerged in similar environments billion years ago, when scientists believe Mars still had abundant flowing water.
The primary mission of Perseverance is to search for 'biosignatures' — signs of life that, if it ever existed on Mars, may be embedded in layered deposits throughout the floor of Jezero Crater. In doing so, Perseverance could help answer the question of whether Earth is the only home of life in our solar system.
8. Space Helicopter?
Indeed, a space helicopter. Alongside Perseverance on its 300,000,000-mile journey is the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Weighing just four pounds, this little device functions as little more than a four-legged flying camera.
Ingenuity’s primary role is to serve as an interplanetary test flight. Its main objective is to demonstrate that a helicopter can fly in Mars’ ultra-thin atmosphere – a challenge that requires significantly more lift. For this, Ingenuity is equipped with four specially designed carbon-fiber blades, arranged into two rotors that spin in opposite directions at roughly 2,400 rpm – much faster than helicopters on Earth. The extreme cold is another hurdle, as nighttime temperatures on Mars can plummet to -90°C, pushing Ingenuity’s components to their limits.
Another challenge is the inability to control Ingenuity in real time. While Perseverance moves deliberately on the surface, Ingenuity, being a flying device, cannot be steered with a joystick due to the long signal delay between Earth and Mars. Instead, Ingenuity receives pre-programmed commands and then operates autonomously. It also charges itself through its solar panel, a task Perseverance doesn’t have to manage thanks to its innovative nuclear battery.
In addition to being the first object to fly on another planet, Ingenuity has an important secondary role: surveillance. The helicopter carries a high-resolution downward-facing camera that helps it navigate and can also survey areas, such as the ground just beyond a hill. The aim is to identify points of interest for Perseverance, which moves slowly and will analyze these potential sites in detail.
7. Armed and Ready
Perseverance’s standout feature is its advanced seven-foot robotic arm. Engineered to resemble a human limb for intuitive operation from Earth, this highly capable extension includes a shoulder, elbow, and a rotating 'wrist.' It also comes equipped with a gripper designed to function similarly to a human hand, essentially a robotic version of the most versatile tool Mother Nature has ever created.
The arm of Perseverance can reach nearly all of its science tools, allowing it to easily access its 'hand tools' for tasks like extracting core samples from the Martian soil, capturing microscopic images, and analyzing the elemental and mineral composition of Martian rocks and dirt.
One of its most impressive tools is the rotary percussive drill. This advanced device – partly powered by Perseverance’s turret-like hand – uses rotational motion to drill into the Martian surface and gather valuable samples. With an array of drill bits for various tasks, including those designed to scrape away surface layers and reveal deeper material, the arm’s self-sealing system deposits the samples directly into collection tubes.
Another key instrument on the arm is PIXL, which detects changes in the textures and chemical makeup of Martian rocks and soil, searching for signs of ancient life. PIXL will analyze potential specimens to help determine which ones hold the most scientific value for further study.
6. Listen Up
Perseverance is outfitted with two advanced, highly sensitive microphones, marking the first time such equipment has been sent to another planet. These microphones offer NASA its inaugural chance to listen in on the sounds of our galactic neighbor. The rover’s primary mission is to record the whistling Martian winds – known for their strength and dust-kicking nature, which once rendered a previous rover unusable by covering its solar panels.
In addition, Perseverance will be listening to… itself. The crunch of its wheels rolling across the Martian surface will not only provide evidence of the rover’s ongoing functionality but could also offer valuable clues about the composition of Martian soil.
Interestingly, it’s possible that Perseverance’s landing was detected by a nearby spacecraft. In 2018, NASA’s InSight probe landed about 3,500 km (2,200 miles) away. Equipped with a seismometer to detect marsquakes, InSight may have felt the vibrations from Perseverance’s arrival on the red planet.
This would mark the first-ever seismic detection of an impact on another planet and could provide further insight into Mars' interior, as seismic waves can reveal underground geological features. Unfortunately, InSight's ability to gather data was weakened just before Perseverance's arrival due to dust buildup on its solar panels. Updates on whether InSight “heard” the rover’s landing are expected soon.
5. Nuclear Battery
To prevent the same fate as its predecessor – which was rendered immobile by a Martian dust storm that covered its solar panels and drained its energy – Perseverance is equipped with a groundbreaking power source: a nuclear battery.
The rover’s energy comes from a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), supplied by the U.S. Department of Energy to NASA. This 99-pound device converts heat from the natural radioactive decay of over ten pounds of plutonium-238 into a consistent flow of electricity. Initially, it will generate around 110 watts, with only a slight decrease in output each year.
The MMRTG also charges two lithium-ion batteries, which are used during daily operations and when power needs briefly exceed normal levels. This is particularly important for Perseverance’s innovative drilling and soil sampling activities, which can demand up to 900 watts of power.
Beyond powering Perseverance, the MMRTG serves another critical purpose: it generates excess heat, helping to maintain the rover’s tools and systems at workable temperatures. Though not perfect, this feature is a significant improvement over being vulnerable to mission-threatening weather conditions.
4. The Next Step Toward Manned Missions: Oxygen Creation
In addition to its quest for ancient life, one of Perseverance’s most crucial tasks is to pave the way for future human missions to Mars. The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, stands out as the most ambitious endeavor in this regard.
MOXIE’s goal is to demonstrate how astronauts could one day generate oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. Weighing 37 pounds and about the size of a car battery, MOXIE functions much like a tree, 'breathing in' carbon dioxide (which makes up around 96% of Mars' atmosphere) and 'breathing out' oxygen. This oxygen is crucial not only for astronauts’ breathing, but also as rocket fuel, as any manned mission would require a means to launch back to Earth.
With Perseverance’s limited power supply in mind, MOXIE’s objectives are modest. It will operate for brief hour-long sessions on an intermittent basis, producing roughly 10 grams (0.022 pounds) of oxygen per experiment.
To provide context, launching from Mars would require between 33 and 50 tons of fuel, roughly the mass of a space shuttle. Scientists believe that any system capable of providing a substantial portion of this oxygen would need to be about 100 times larger than MOXIE, making it a tiny yet vital prototype of a future oxygen-generating system.
3. A Very Special Delivery
Perseverance’s most profound contribution to humanity may come at the end of its mission: in ten years, the plan is to return Martian soil samples back to Earth. This ambitious initiative, known as Mars Sample Return, will unfold over the next decade through three distinct missions.
Like its predecessor Curiosity, Perseverance is equipped with a laboratory onboard. However, it goes a step further by having an advanced sampling system designed to collect Martian rocks and soil, packaging them for a historic return journey to Earth.
For the next two years, Perseverance will use a drill bit to extract cylindrical cores from the surface, obtaining a cross-section of the soil. The deeper the sample, the further back in time it will trace, much like Earth’s own geological history.
Once Perseverance has collected and sealed approximately 40 core samples, it will do something unexpected: it will leave them behind. Later in the decade, a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency will send the Sample Retriever Lander to gather Perseverance’s samples. The Lander will load them into a rocket, launching them into space – marking the first ever launch from another planet.
The rocket will then release its basketball-sized payload into orbit around Mars. After completing this interplanetary handoff, the massive Earth Return Orbiter, as large as a commercial airplane, will capture the samples from Martian orbit and transport them back to Earth. This delivery may contain evidence of ancient alien life, representing one of the greatest achievements in space exploration.
2. Sending Mementos to Mars
For many years, NASA has enjoyed adding little extras to its spacecraft and rovers as they journey into space. Perseverance continues this tradition.
Among its treasures, Perseverance carries three microchips inscribed with nearly 11 million names, part of the “Send Your Name To Mars” campaign. This is a significant jump from the last rover, Curiosity, which carried around 1.2 million names. Additionally, Perseverance honors healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, as its July 2020 launch came just months after the crisis began.
Some of Perseverance's extras are both practical and whimsical. For instance, the rover’s Mastcam-Z, a zoomable panoramic camera, also includes a message to any potential non-Earth beings. The message reads: 'Are we alone? We came here to look for signs of life, and to collect samples of Mars for study on Earth. To those who follow, we wish a safe journey and the joy of discovery.'
One of the most intriguing of Perseverance's indulgences is a coin made from astronaut helmet-visor material – a playful nod to geocaching, the thrilling hobby of using GPS to hide and seek hidden treasures. This coin is part of the calibration target for the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument, and it bears the address of its literary inspiration: 221b Baker Street, London, England.
1. What’s Old Is New
In a bit of irony, some of the most advanced features of the most expensive and complex rover ever built rely on technology that dates back to the 1990s.
For instance, Perseverance is equipped with a radiation-hardened version of the IBM PowerPC microprocessor known as the RAD750. Initially designed by Motorola and IBM, this chip is primarily used in satellites and avionics, and boasts the processing power of a circa-1992 Pentium 1 processor. It handles the rover's entire avionics architecture, designed and programmed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Why rely on such seemingly outdated technology? The answer is simple: it's battle-tested.
"The tighter you pack your transistors, the more vulnerable they become to radiation," explained Richard Rieber, a JPL mobility flight systems engineer. "When it comes to space hardware, you need reliability, and the RAD750 has supported a couple of hundred space missions."
If it works, why change it—especially when designing a groundbreaking vehicle with a multitude of other challenges to solve. The tried-and-true RAD750 computer collaborates with a set of field programmable gate array (FPGA) computers to manage the rover’s drivetrain, wheels, suspension, and cameras.
One FPGA, the Virtex-5, may seem technologically dated but has earned its trust. It played a vital role in Perseverance’s successful atmospheric entry, descent, and landing. Now, with the rover safely on Mars, this system will be reprogrammed from Earth to carry out mobility visual processing.
