NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover is due to land on the surface of the red planet today. It's an exciting period for Mars explorations says Dr David Brown from the Department of Physics, who has commented on the mission.

Dr Brown said: "After the UAE’s Emirates Mars Mission and China’s Tianwen-1 mission both arrived at Mars last week, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission is the latest chapter in an exciting period for Mars exploration. Perseverance is an evolution of NASA’s previous rover designs, and will explore a new area of Mars that was previously considered too dangerous to land a rover in; new landing technology that allows the lander to identify and steer away from hazards has made this area accessible. The main scientific goals of Perseverance relate to ongoing investigations into the habitability of Mars, and to early preparations for future human exploration. In addition to studying the geology of its landing site to investigate whether it had the potential to host life in the past, Perseverance will be testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, and will be collecting samples of Martian rock and soil for collection by future missions."

18 February 2021

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