NASA Preparing For A Mars Exploration Mission

Illustrations robot rover Preverance (NASA)

JAKARTA - In a few days time, the American Space Agency (NASA) will launch an exploration mission to Planet Mars. If there is no obstacle, the NASA rocket launch schedule will be carried out on Thursday, July 30th.

Citing the Space page, NASA will use a rover robot dubbed "Perseverance" the size of a car to explore Mars. The robot rover will be delivered via the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

So far, NASA has announced that it is ready to pass a number of its flight readiness reviews, which include a readiness assessment of spacecraft, rockets, procedures and personnel.

"Mars is a tough planet, and we don't want to just give up," said Perseverance deputy project manager Matt Wallace.

In fact, this rocket launch was scheduled for early July but was delayed due to weather and technical factors. This is NASA's second mission, since sending the robot rover 'Curiosity' nine years ago.

This time, Perseverance will replace Curiosity's task of exploring the red planet. This sophisticated robot will land in Jezero Crater, an area with a history of water, explorers will start a mission to look for signs of ancient microbial life.

Robot Perseverance doesn't go alone. He also carries an experimental drone called Ingenuity which is attached to his body. The goal, if successful, then the helicopter can open new avenues to be explored in the future.

For information, this NASA mission is one of several launches to Mars on the limited occasions this year when the Red Planet is in an advantageous position relative to Earth. If NASA missed that opportunity it meant waiting until 2022 for the next opportunity.

NASA preparations for Mars

Before launching a launch to Mars, NASA made preparations such as placing a nuclear power supply in a rover. Where they installed the Multi-mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) generator in the Perseverance rover.

Later the MMRTG will be activated as an energy source for the Perseverance rover. The resource used in the MMRTG Perseverance rover was plutonium-238.

With the material-fusion method to produce energy of 110W. This power is stored in two lithium-ion batteries that are mounted on top of the rover.

NASA claims the energy supply is sufficient to operate the Perseverance rover for up to 14 years. Even though it is capable of carrying out quite a long mission, this robot will only carry out its duties for approximately two years.