FfFfFfFF 58,113 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA's nuclear-powered Perseverance Mars rover roared to life and lifted off from Cape Canaveral early Thursday, the first step in a decade-long program to search for signs of past microbial life and to collect rock and soil samples for eventual return to Earth. It will take the $2.4 billion rover seven months to reach Mars. When it arrives in February, it will descend to the floor of a 28-mile-wide crater near the remnants of an ancient river delta and lakebed deposits where traces of past biological activity might be preserved. Along with collecting samples to be recovered later by a European rover, Perseverance will drop off an experimental $80 million helicopter which will be able to hover above the surface for the first "Wright brothers' moment" on Mars. Perseverance is the third Mars probe launched in the past two weeks, following spacecraft sent off by the United Arab Emirates and China. It is also the most ambitious, building on the success of eight earlier Mars landings. This is the first NASA mission explicitly designed to search for signs of life on another world. S: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-perseverance-mars-2020-rover-launch-watch-live-2020-07-30/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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