The first of two images sent by Perseverance after its successful landing on Mars.
On February, 18, 2021, NASA successfully landed Perseverance, a rover, on the surface of Mars. Decades have passed since the last time NASA attempted to directly study whether there was ever any life on Mars, so the successful landing of Perseverance is a big win for NASA. With its ability to look for complex carbon molecules, Perseverance can help scientists find compositions that may have the organic molecules, elements, and minerals that we associate with life. Part of its mission is to also make Ingenuity, a small experimental helicopter, fly in Mars' atmosphere, something that has not been attempted before. I believe that the tools and capabilities of Perseverance will allow for greater knowledge on Mars, and help scientists make educated hypotheses of whether or not there was life on Mars, should it succeed in its mission. I think its success would also aid NASA with any other future space endeavors, as Perseverance explores new methods of researching on the Martian surface. All that being said, I am not sure whether Perseverance will succeed in its mission. With the rover experimenting with new methods of research and exploration, there is no definitive answer to its success. Overall, I was really impressed by this accomplishment and look forward to hearing more about Perseverance in the future. What are your thoughts on Perseverance and its landing on Mars? Do you think Perseverance will succeed in its mission? How do you think Perseverance's work will impact our future with Mars, and space in general?
I think that this is a great step forward for Humanity. The expansion of our knowledge of our Galaxy, along with the potential benefits that could come from such research, is almost always a benefit to Humanity in some regard. I do hope that the Perseverance succeeds in its mission. If the Perseverance manages to uncover data about life on Mars, then it might open the way for, as cliche as it sounds, colonization and exploration missions to other planets. All in all, I see this as good news.
ReplyDeleteI think you’re right, discovering more on whether there was life on Mars could open the possibility of exploration on other planets and colonization on Mars. While this will likely be far, far into the future, having greater knowledge on life on Mars is certainly a step in that direction.
DeleteI was very impressed with the news that Perseverance landed on mars, and was happy at the same time since the rover holds so much potential for important discovery. I think that it will be successful in collecting the samples from the surface of Mars and taking images, the first of which we have already been able to see, however the problem is how the rover will then be able to send those samples it collects to Earth, which requires another spacecraft to bring them back. For now, I think that it will just collect these samples until we develop spacecrafts that can consistently both land and the launch back, and which would be able to make that round trip. I think Perseverance's work has great implications of course on being able to identify life on another planet, but also in testing Ingenuity it will be able to confirm off-world flight, which could be integrated into the exploration of Mars.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about bringing the samples to Earth. I hadn’t really thought about how they would be brought here, but it should definitely be taken into consideration when talking about the success of the mission, as people need to have some samples in order to do more research on whether there was ever life on Mars.
DeleteI was impressed by the landing of Perseverance and excited for the information and knowledge that the rover will provide NASA for future space exploration. I hope that it will succeed in its mission because I think it is important to learn as much as we can about the planets and outer space. I think that the findings from this mission will impact our future in space, whether the mission itself is successful or not. Even if Perseverance is unsuccessful in collecting data, we can still learn from these setbacks and develop new technologies that will be successful in completing the mission. I think that this is an important step in the right direction, and will hopefully spark more exploration of Mars.
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely a unique and eye opening experience to see the landing of Perseverance. It will hopefully provide more data about Mars, and we could learn more about the surface, and compare and contrast the data found there to what we know on earth. I believe that this mission will be successful, because our technology is much powerful and long lasting than previous expeditions. Collecting samples of the surface of Mars can impact our lives in space, and exploring different ways to make Mars inhabitable. As Caitlin said, even if the expedition turns out to be unsuccessful, it will still provide new concept and strategies to futher develop new technologies, to ensure the next expedition is successful.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I love space exploration and things like this so I am very excited to see the information we will get from this rover that landed on mars. I am also anxious to see what other things NASA has to offer for space exploration. I have a feeling that it will succeed in providing us with new information about this planet in our solar system. The technology used in this rover outclasses the technology in the other one by a long shot and hopefully the information acquired by it is useful and leads to some new discovers. I think no matter what we will be able to learn something new because of this rover.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t know about the Perseverance before, so this was very impressive to hear about. When reading the article I noticed it mentioned that the Perseverance is about the size of a car, which I wasn’t expecting. Such a huge project was likely extremely expensive, but hopefully we will at least gain some new insight on whether the conditions on Mars were ever able to support life. I think it’s funny how we as humans have spent so much time and energy trying to figure out whether there is or was at some point any life outside of Earth, almost as though we want to know we aren’t totally alone. Either way, the Perseverance project is very interesting and it’s nice to hear some positive and hopeful news for a change.
ReplyDeleteI think its pretty cool that despite Nasa being outside its hayday and having a fraction of what its funding used to be its still able to launch these rovers into space for scientific betterment. I hope that even if Nasa wont be landing more people on the moon they contiune to launch other satlites or probs and whatnot into space. As for its search, I dont really know the previous findings of the previous research attempt but I do think there is a good chance. Not small or too big but something like a 40/60 chance they find life. As for its impact on space travel I think the general populace is too busy paying attention to private industries that have begun launching rockets like Space x and what not to be concerned with another nasa launch. Overall I think when space exploration is looked back as history I think the private buisness will be more rembered than nasa in this decade.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Pascal, if this is what NASA can do even no longer being a national priority, then just imagine what it could accomplish with significant funding and government support. I am optimistic that collaboration with companies like spaceX will lead to a mars landing by the end of this decade, after which there will hopefully be increased public interest in the space program. SO far, Perseverance has been mostly successful and has not had any major errors while on Mars, so that is a good sign for the mission's future success. I'm especially impressed with how the engineers managed to include a working helicopter with the rover, considering the harsh wind conditions on Mars.
ReplyDeleteI think Perserverance’s landing on Mars is an amazing step forward in the science community. Granted the large effort put into space, this success of landing Perseverance demonstrates the many possibilities there are for improving our knowledge on space. As for the success of Perseverance, I think the landing in itself constitutes success for the mission. Obviously, granted NASA is trying to use new technology such as the experimental helicopter, not everything will work with flying colors. However, even if this helicopter “failed,” it would still be a success, as it would allow engineers at NASA to improve the mechanics of their model in order to create a future success.
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