5 Aug 2021

Collecting a Sample from Mars – NASA Perseverance Rover

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Mars has always been an endless treasure trove of mysteries, but thanks to the ongoing efforts of the Perseverance rover and the team behind it, we may soon have answers to some of the questions surrounding our red, rocky sister planet. Perseverance launched earlier this year on February 18th and has since been documenting the Martian surface with the powerful camera integrated into its system. Alongside high-resolution photography, the rover recorded 16 minutes of audio which captured the sound of winds blowing across the landscape. However, the team behind Perseverance plans to up the ante, looking to collect a physical rock sample to examine. The first sample will be taken from a section of the Jezero Crater called the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough.” This task is scheduled to take 11 days due to the delay in communication between mission control and the rover itself. It is one of four samples to be collected over the next year of exploration, which will be stored within the rover’s body until missions can be sent to retrieve them for examination. During this time, Perseverance will perform rudimentary tests on the samples to provide preliminary data. The rover was fitted with several instruments that allow it to collect a range of data points. Key among these is SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), and the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera, which will provide mineral and chemical analysis of the sample rock. Using this data, scientists may be able to piece together more about the history of Mars and the viability of future exploration missions. Until now, procuring an extraterrestrial sample for examination was a monumental advancement only achieved by Niel Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew when they collected moon rock from the Sea of Tranquility basin.

The key objective of Perseverance’s mission is to advance the field of astrobiology and look for definitive proof of microbial life having existed on Mars. Utilizing the data collected by the rover, the team hopes to pave the way for human exploration of the planet. Future NASA missions, with cooperation from the European Space Agency, plan to collect the samples stored within Perseverance’s frame and ship them to Earth for more extensive analysis that cannot be performed by the equipment built into the rover. Years of effort made this feat possible and will vastly expand our understanding of the wider universe around us.

If you are interested in reading more, click here for the article from NASA themselves, or click here for the LiveScience coverage. Want to learn more about past missions that Lenox Laser has covered, click here.

6 May 2021

Potential for Microbial Life on Mars

 BlogNews
Courtesy of NASA

When the Mars Perseverance rover landed on the planet in February, it astonished the world with detailed photos of the planet and audio of the surface. After discovering water and ice on Mars, the next endeavor starting the search for evidence of possible life and life-supporting properties on the planet. A new study conducted by the Astrobiology Journal concluded that there is indeed the right amount of ingredients to support microbial life. The study looked at the planet’s Martian meteorites and their chemical makeup. Observing the chemical reaction whenever these meteorites had continuous constant contact with water once the meteorites fell back to Earth.

Among the many reactions studied, Radiolysis was of massive interest. The reaction is created when radioactive elements like potassium uranium and thorium could be converted sulfates, so much so that they tap water. One of the reasons is that there’s water on the planet because there is a flowing lake somewhere on the planet in the subsurface. It is now believed that once the components of that lake are studied further, how microbial life could exist could possibly be revealed. Also, different wavelengths of light being investigated to potentially give way to a better understanding of Mars’s past.

Further study will be ongoing, but the full extent of the findings may not be known for some time. The idea of life on another planet could be an extraordinary mark left on history forever.

If you would like to read more, please click here.

1 Apr 2021

The Moxie Box – NASA’s Oxygen Box

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Courtesy of NASA

               About a month and a half ago, NASA’s Perseverance rover made landfall on Mars, bringing audio and video skimming across the planet’s surface. NASA sent the rover to Mars on a mission that ended in February this year to search for signs of life on the planet by collecting many different rock samples and broken rock and soil mixture called regolith. Mars is not the safest environment for human exploration. Its harsh atmosphere is a mix of molecular oxygen, carbon monoxide, dioxide argon, and molecular nitrogen.

Carrying several thousand pounds of oxygen for any mission on a rocket can be challenging. NASA created a box codenamed Moxie to take on the challenge. The Moxie box is almost no larger than a car battery. However, it allows explorers to traverse the planet’s surface for longer because Moxie would convert Mars’s environment into breathable air for the astronauts. The Moxie box weighs in total about 33 pounds and cost about $50 million to make.

               The Moxie box works by siphoning carbon dioxide; then, theoretically, it would split molecules electrochemically into oxygen and carbon monoxide. The Moxie box would mix in a tremendous amount of oxygen with the carbon monoxide. Scientists have plans of making more extensive versions of the Moxie box. At its current size, it should be able to produce about 10 grams of oxygen per hour. The box consumes 300 Watts of power.

               Once perfected, this box would be a game-changer for astronauts and planetary exploration. With the successful use of the box on board the Perseverance rover in February 2021, it is hoped that larger-scale devices can be launched possibly sometime in 2030 and beyond.

If you would like to read more, click here for an article by Popular Mechanics.

4 Mar 2021

NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover

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NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover is making waves by sending its first hi-resolution images of Mars back to Earth. Perseverance is the fifth Mars Rover and the most technically advanced yet. For the first time in history, the Rover recorded the sound of Mars’s surface; 11 mile-per-hour winds could also be heard. Perseverance had been traveling since July 30 of last year and touched down on the planet’s surface on February 18, 2021. The current mission is scheduled to last for two years. Perseverance aims to study information about the geological processes that created the crust and surface of Mars and how it evolved over time.

Past findings have also indicated sources of water on the planet’s surface. As far as the planet’s environment goes, it has been found to have seasonal temperature changes, polar ice caps, past volcanic activity, found to be very dusty and cold. The idea of life on the planet has been explored in the past. In the last few days, a 360° panoramic view using high-resolution photos of Mars has been constructed and made available to the public. It shows the planet’s surface and the environment in detail never seen before.

Some of the challenges that the Rover faced were things like making sure the equipment could survive the extremely harsh atmosphere of the planet. In fact, at one point, the Rover’s systems went into safe mode shortly after launch. Despite this, the landing was a stunning success, and the ongoing mission continues to be very fruitful. 

What the future holds for Mars, mankind does not yet know. However, with technology on his side, we are very excited to find out just how bright that future could be. To see the panoramic photos in full, please click here.