Perseverance

Perseverance, nicknamed Percy, is an SUV-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Jezero crater on Mars as part of NASA‘s Mars 2020 mission. It was manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was launched on 30 July, 2020, at 11:50 UTC.[1] Confirmation that the rover had landed on Mars was received on 18 February 2021 at 20:55 UTC.

Perseverance carries seven new scientific instruments and has a total of 19 cameras and two microphones. The rover is carrying the mini-helicopter Ingenuity, an experimental aircraft that will attempt the first powered flight on another planet.

Design

Perseverance in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California

The Perseverance design evolved from its predecessor, the Curiosity rover. The two rovers share a similar body plan, landing system, cruise stage, and power system, but the new rover incorporates many lessons from Curiosity. Engineers designed the Perseverance rover wheels to be more robust than Curiosity‘s wheels, which have sustained some damage.[12] The rover has thicker, more durable aluminum wheels, with reduced width and a greater diameter (52.5 cm (20.7 in)) than Curiosity‘s 50 cm (20 in) wheels.[13][14] The aluminum wheels are covered with cleats for traction and curved titanium spokes for springy support.[15] Like Curiosity, the rover includes a robotic arm, although Perseverance‘s arm is longer and stronger, measuring 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in). The arm hosts an elaborate rock-coring and sampling mechanism to store geologic samples from the Martian surface in ultra-clean caching tubes.

The combination of larger instruments, new sampling and caching system, and modified wheels makes Perseverance heavier, weighing 1,025 kg (2,260 lb) compared to Curiosity at 899 kg (1,982 lb)—a 14% increase.

The rover’s radioisotope thermoelectric power generator (MMRTG) has a mass of 45 kg (99 lb) and uses 4.8 kg (11 lb) of plutonium-238 oxide as its power source. The natural decay of plutonium-238 (half-life of 87.7 years) gives off heat which is converted to electricity[18] – approximately 110 watts at launch. This will decrease over time as its power source decays.[18] The MMRTG charges two lithium-ion rechargeable batteries which power the rover’s activities, and must be recharged periodically. Unlike solar panels, the MMRTG provides engineers with significant flexibility in operating the rover’s instruments even at night and during dust storms, and through winter.

The rover’s computer uses the BAE RAD750 radiation-hardened single board computer. The computer contains 128 megabytes of volatile DRAM, and runs at 133 MHz. The flight software is able to access 4 gigabytes of NAND non-volatile memory on a separate card.

Also traveling with Perseverance is the Mars helicopter experiment, named Ingenuity. This solar-powered helicopter drone has a mass of 1.8 kg (4.0 lb). It will demonstrate flight stability and the potential to scout for ideal driving routes for the rover over its planned 30-day mission.[20] Other than a camera, it carries no scientific instruments.

Landing

The successful landing of Perseverance in Jezero Crater was announced at 20:55 UTC on 18 February 2021.


Science objectives


The Perseverance rover has four science objectives that support the Mars Exploration Program‘s science goals:

  1. Looking for habitability: identify past environments capable of supporting microbial life.

  2. Seeking biosignatures: seek signs of possible past microbial life in those habitable environments, particularly in special rocks known to preserve signs over time.

  3. Caching samples: collect core rock and regolith (“soil”) samples and store them on the Martian surface.

  4. Preparing for humans: test oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere.