NASA, the United States space agency will launch its Mars Preservance Rover on July 30 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. According to space experts, this anticipated mission will make its soft landing on the Red Planet's surface next year on February 18, 2021. The primary purpose of this mission is to determine whether Mars was once home to alien life.
Perseverance Rover and Helicopter
The $2.1 billion rover is equipped with the first helicopter, known as Ingenuity. This helicopter will help scientists understand the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet. Space experts believe that understanding viability of air vehicles on the Red Planet will help during the next Mars mission that will be most probably the first step to build a colony on the Red Planet.
If everything goes well, the Preservance Rover will land on Mars at the Jezero crater. The mission will join the probes being conducted by the still-functional Curiosity Rover, and the already dead Opportunity Rover on the Red Planet's surface.
Was there Alien Life on Mars?
Several previous studies had suggested that Mars once had geology very similar to that of the earth. Several studies have even assured that Mars had a healthy river system, and it had offered the right conditions for life to thrive.
"The SuperCam was designed, built and tested at DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory in partnership with the French space agency, Centre national d'études spatiales. SuperCam uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to study mineral composition, hardness and texture of Martian rocks and soils and will search for organic compounds related to Mars' geologic past," Paul Dabbar, DOE Under Secretary for Science told Fox News.
Earlier, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine had also shared his thoughts on the existence of alien life on the Red Planet. "We don't know if life existed there or not. But we do know that Mars at one point in its history was habitable," said Bridenstine on the eve of the launch.
A few months back, NASA's chief scientist Jim Green had predicted that alien life, at least in its microbial form will be discovered in 2021. He also made it clear that humanity is not ready to accept the realities surrounding the existence of alien life.
