Mars is like that one place for NASA’s hangout that they never get bored of. Since 1960s, 50 Spacecraft missions have been planned for Mars, out of which only five have successfully landed and then finally Perseverance or ‘Percy’ (Looks like someone’s a big Rick Riordan fan at NASA), made it to the list on Thursday.
Looking at history of successful Mars Missions, the first that crossed the horizons was Sojourner in 1997, a tiny path finder, Spirit and Opportunity were the next in line which arrived simultaneously in 2004, Curiosity in 2012, and then finally Perseverance in 2021. So, the question is why do we keep knocking at Mar’s doors and why is it that we are sending spacecrafts nearly every decade. Well, the general answer to the question would be we are still looking and exploring the surroundings and atmosphere of Mars. Until now the evidence from photos and videos have somewhat given us a picture of the situation on Mars, and also hinted on shocking evidences of life forms.
The reason scientists and the people related to the field of science are so excited about Perseverance’s landing on Mars is for the very reason that this time it’s not like just being on a Zoom call with Mars. Perseverance is somewhat a compact chemistry lab that has been sent to conduct experiments on Mars. The better-quality images have led to a curious question about the tiny holes or pores on the rocks as to raise questions about the geology on the Red Planet. Not only this the spacecraft has an inbuilt instrument called SpaceCam which with the help of laser beams vaporizes the rocks and then collects data on its vapors.
Although we are far from proving that human life can exist or conditions could be made suitable for the same, we are getting closer. The question is, even if we are to prove the same, how can humanity other than collecting information benefit from this? Is planning to send humans on Mars as certain theories suggest a practical idea or just an illusion? Also, will it be ethical invading other planet, if alien life form already exists on planet Mars?
While these are questions that can only be answered in the future, once required data and operations have been collected, we do know that Eathlings for now are having a great time at café Red Planet. We just hope the party crashers at Mars, do not call 911 on them and shut the party down.
Source:
NASA’s Perseverance rover beams back first images from its wild landing – The Verge
You never see posts about other planets and space technology on here so I thought I would comment and look into this topic. I started mind wandering a little bit while reading this post, imagining what chemistry experiments they are conducting and how it looks. Humanity will be a lot closer to possibly living on Mars by conducting these experiments as we can create an atmosphere on Mars where Humans can thrive. I believe Humans will eventually be living on Mars and/or another planet. Earth will possibly not be a safe planet to live on in the future so Humans would have to result to another planet. When answering the question of invading alien life forms’ planet as unethical or not, I believe their are not any organisms on Mars with an intelligence like Humans; therefore, I think no morals should be involved in the situation. I feel we would know if Mars had organisms like us as they would have given a sign.
I’m curious what technology related studies are being done in order to make life on Mars become more realistic. I found a different article talking about the same topic as the post, and it mentioned technology being used to help with life on Mars. Specifically, it talked about a device that turns the CO2 heavy air in Mars into healthy breathable air for humans through electrolysis. Also, the article talked about launching a helicopter once on Mars. This helicopter has two cameras to see what Mars looks like. The implication of this helicopter will be a good reference when exploring planets in the future.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/17/1018729/nasa-perseverance-rover-landing-searching-extraterrestrial-life-mars/