News hardware Mission to Mars: NASA encounters a big problem
Published on 05/18/2022 at 19:05
After a perilous mission that lasted almost 4 years, NASA’s InSight mission must suspend its activities. And for good reason, extreme weather conditions have jeopardized certain functions of the probe, some of which are essential.
NASA doesn’t always have all the solutions…
Obviously, the first thing we could say to ourselves: NASA could and should have foreseen this error. At least if it is. In effect, the severe climatic conditions of certain regions of the red planet have considerably weakened the robot’s systems.
Cherry on the cake, martian dust has accumulated on the solar panels of the probe that powers the probewhich is its main source of energy.
After 4 years of mission, NASA must put an end to their immense epic which marks history forever. The Perseverance rover, meanwhile, lives up to its name, and will continue to supply data to scientists because it is equipped with a thermoelectric generator, which in no way depends on the sun.
For more than a month, the rover has been approaching the delta where researchers believe it could find biosignatures. That is, evidence, if only hints, of potential life on Mars.
On this journey, the Perseverance rover was accompanied by Ingenuity, a small helicopter that serves as a scout in these wild lands.
The pockets of red sand and the steep slopes of the planet Mars slowed down the mission, but all is well that ends well for the InSight probe, which brought its share of data.
A data-rich Mars mission
In 4 years of mission, the InSight probe has provided scientists with valuable data. Until then, NASA intends to have the Perseverance rover climb the Rocky Top, a slope upstream from the delta where the first samples were taken.
According to NASA, this area would be the best for a sample, because it could have preserved certain organic molecules essential to the determination of a former life on the red planet.
The home straight is drawn for the small probe, which is entering its last phase of life. But the data collected was more than surprising.
Before the mission took off, scientists suspected Lezero Crater to be an ancient dry lake. Well, imagine that NASA’s little technological gem has succeeded in proving it! By analyzing the surroundings, it was found that the sedimentation of certain rock walls were undoubtedly strewn with long liquid rivers, and even immense floods, which would have completely changed the relief of the red planet.
If the last leg goes as planned, despite the probe’s nearly dead battery, scientists could pinpoint significant evidence of life on Mars thanks to the two rovers, Opportunity and Perseverance, which are still rolling around the planet. red. A historic discovery that would change our view of the universe forever.