NASA Launches Rocket to Mars Carrying a Nuclear-Powered Rover That Will Probe Red Planet and Obtain Samples to Return to Earth

The MSM will hide this good news, but the US launched a rocket to Mars this morning.  The rocket includes a rover that will investigate the red planet and then return to earth.

MSN.com reported this morning:

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. The rover also will test technology astronauts might one day use to live off the land by extracting oxygen from from the thin carbon dioxide atmosphere.

The Kennedy Space Center reports:

As part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, the Mars 2020 rover, named Perseverance, will explore the Martian surface and seek to answer questions about the potential of ancient life on Mars. The rover will also gather information and test new technology that will help address the challenges of future human missions to Mars. Per NASA¹, these tests include “a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying other resources (such as subsurface water), improving landing techniques, and characterizing weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.”

Pretty cool – the US is back in the space business thanks to President Trump.

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