This Thursday, July 30 at 1:50 p.m. Spanish time, NASA will launch -from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida- , its fifth Mars rover attached to the tip of the Atlas V rocket : a robotic scientist the size of an SUV. The $ 2.4 billion nuclear vehicle, called Perseverance, is designed to roam the Martian surface, extract signs of past life, capture high-quality audio and video, and collect rocks and soil samples for an eventual journey back to Earth.
During Thursday there will be a launch window of two hours, but in case the launch is canceled due to technical or weather problems, it could be done until August 15, which is the deadline.
The vehicle, which maintains the quadrangular shape of the previous rovers, measures 3 meters long and 2.7 meters wide and weighs 1,043 kilos and will land, after months of travel, in the Jezero crater , the prominent location chosen for Perseverance, in an area where a river delta once formed, before Mars was a dry and arid desert. The area was once flooded with water and subsequently became rich in large clay deposits.
Perseverance is the fifth rover to reach Mars and also the most advanced to date.
The mission will also see the testing of Ingenuity, the first flying machine we sent to another world . The little helicopter is a small technology demonstration, as the team expects it to fly autonomously for 30 Martian days. If successful, this could be the start of many more air missions to Mars and beyond.
Where to watch the launch
You can see it live from the Internet through the NASA website or its official YouTube channel.
Reference: NASA
