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Agencies

With eight successful Mars landings, Nasa is upping the ante with its newest rover.
The spacecraft Perseverance – set for lift-off this week – is Nasa’s biggest and brainiest Martian rover yet.
“The launch readiness review is complete, and we are indeed go for launch,” Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said.
The launch will take place at 7:50am (7.50pm Hong Kong time) on Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
Live coverage will take place on YouTube and across social media platforms.

It sports the latest landing tech, plus the most cameras and microphones ever assembled to capture the sights and sounds of Mars. Its super-sanitised sample return tubes – for rocks that could hold evidence of past Martian life – are the cleanest items ever bound for space. A helicopter is even tagging along for an otherworldly test flight.
It is this summer’s third and final mission to Mars – after the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter and China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter-rover combo.
Like the other spacecraft, Perseverance should reach the red planet next February following a journey spanning seven months and more than 480 million kilometres.


Bridenstine doesn’t see it as a competition. “But certainly we welcome more explorers to deliver more science than ever before,” he said following a launch review Monday. “And we look forward to seeing what it is that they’re able to discover.”
The mission is part of Nasa’s Artemis programme, which aims to land people on the moon by 2024 and establish sustained human presence there by 2028, as a stepping stone to get to Mars.
Following a seven-month journey, Perseverance is set to land at Jezero Crater, Nasa’s riskiest Martian landing site yet because of boulders and cliffs.
Elon Musk unveils plan for SpaceX’s Mars ‘Starship’ rocket
The six-wheeled robot, which is about the size of an SUV and weighs 1,040kg (2,300 pounds), is Nasa’s fifth Mars rover and its most advanced to date.
It is a copycat of Nasa’s Curiosity rover, prowling Mars since 2012, but with more upgrades and bulk. The enhancements make for a higher mission price tag: nearly US$3 billion.
The rover comes equipped with a small helicopter called Ingenuity that will attempt to fly – a first on another planet – as well as a robotic arm, and an array of cameras and a pair of microphones.
Besides the helicopter, Perseverance carries other experiments that could directly benefit astronauts at Mars. An instrument the size of a car battery will covert atmospheric carbon dioxide into oxygen, an essential ingredient for rocket propellant and breathing systems.
To look for evidence of ancient fossilised bacteria, it will use two lasers and an X-ray capable of chemical analysis.
It will also gather rock and soil samples for a future mission that will bring them back to Earth for further study.
Nasa prepares for mission to Mars with a trip to Iceland
This is crucial for establishing whether any organic compounds it obtained really came as a result of living processes.
Perseverance will build on previous orbital and landed missions, which established that the dry, cold Mars we see today was much warmer and wetter billions of years ago.
Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, DPA



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Space

‘Go for launch’: Nasa’s Perseverance Mars rover comes with helicopter

Nasa’s Mars rover Perseverance is designed to search for signs of ancient microbial life and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. Photo: AP

This illustration made available by NASA depicts the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on the red planet's surface near the Perseverance rover, left. NASA is upping the ante with its newest rover headed to Mars. Set to rocket away this week from Florida, Perseverance is NASA's brawniest and brainiest Martian rover yet. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

China launches its first independent mission to Mars

A Mars probe is launched on a Long March-5 rocket in southern Hainan province on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua

== PICTURE CAPTURED FROM WEIBIO == China’s first probe to Mars will be launched in the same time window as the United States’ mission this summer, according to the state media. The Tianwen-1 spacecraft will be launched at some time in July or August by a Long March 5 heavy lift rocket, expected to reach and be captured by the gravity field of the red planet next February, and then release a ground rover to land on Mars, Bao Weimin, head of Science and Technology Committee of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CAST) told the state TV.  Photo: WEIBIO

新華社照片，文昌（海南），2020年7月23日 長征五號遙四運載火箭點火升空 我國首次火星探測任務開始 7月23日，長征五號遙四運載火箭在中國文昌航天發射場點火升空，實施我國首次火星探測任務（天問一號任務）。 新華社記者 郭程 攝

Elon Musk unveils plan for SpaceX’s Mars ‘Starship’ rocket

A prototype of Space Exploration Technologies Corp’s Starship spacecraft is seen before company founder Elon Musk’s update on the company's Mars programme in Boca Chica, Texas, on September 28. Photo: Reuters

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) and Tesla Inc., speaks during an event at the SpaceX launch facility in Cameron County, Texas, U.S., on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. Musk gave space fans an update Saturday evening on the status of "Starship," the next-generation vehicle his SpaceX plans to use to eventually take humans to Mars. Photographer: Bronte Wittpenn/Bloomberg

Nasa prepares for mission to Mars with a trip to Iceland

Scientists work at the Nasa base on the Lambahraun lava field in Iceland. Photo: AFP

In this picture taken on July 19, 2019 shows the NASA base at the Lambahraun lava field in Iceland where they are getting their new robotic space explorer ready for the next mission to Mars. - To prepare for the next mission to Mars in 2020, NASA has taken to the lava fields of Iceland to get its new robotic space explorer ready for the job. With its black basalt sand, wind-swept dunes and craggy peaks, the Lambahraun lava field at the foot of Iceland's second biggest glacier, Langjokull, was chosen as a stand-in for the Red Planet's surface. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP)

In this picture taken on July 19, 2019 shows scientists working at the NASA base at the Lambahraun lava field in Iceland where they are getting their new robotic space explorer ready for the next mission to Mars. - To prepare for the next mission to Mars in 2020, NASA has taken to the lava fields of Iceland to get its new robotic space explorer ready for the job. With its black basalt sand, wind-swept dunes and craggy peaks, the Lambahraun lava field at the foot of Iceland's second biggest glacier, Langjokull, was chosen as a stand-in for the Red Planet's surface. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP)

In this picture taken on July 19, 2019 Mark Vandermeulen, a robotics engineer from Mission Control Space Services, poses at the NASA base at the Lambahraun lava field in Iceland where they are getting their new robotic space explorer ready for the next mission to Mars. - To prepare for the next mission to Mars in 2020, NASA has taken to the lava fields of Iceland to get its new robotic space explorer ready for the job. With its black basalt sand, wind-swept dunes and craggy peaks, the Lambahraun lava field at the foot of Iceland's second biggest glacier, Langjokull, was chosen as a stand-in for the Red Planet's surface. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP)

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Nasa’s Mars rover Perseverance is ready to launch this week, the US space agency said
It is the summer’s third mission to Mars – after the UAE’s Hope orbiter and China’s Tianwen-1



With eight successful Mars landings, Nasa is upping the ante with its newest rover.


‘Go for launch’: Nasa’s Perseverance Mars rover comes with helicopter

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Nasa’s Mars rover Perseverance is ready to launch this week, the US space agency said It is the summer’s third mission to Mars – after the UAE’s Hope orbiter and China’s Tianwen-1

Nasa’s Mars rover Perseverance is ready to launch this week, the US space agency said

It is the summer’s third mission to Mars – after the UAE’s Hope orbiter and China’s Tianwen-1