NASA Mars Perseverance Rover {Facts and Information}

NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover was launched on 30 July 2020 at 11:50 UTC. The nickname of this rover is “Percy”. The Percy rover landed on the planet Mars on 18 Feb 2021 at 20:55 UTC.

This Mars-mission-2020 was announced on 4 Dec 2012 by NASA. It has used new technology and instruments that were never used in any rover in the past.

The main purpose of NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover is to search for the existence of ancient life and study the geographical situation on the Martian surface. It will also collect some samples of the rocks and dust. These samples would be brought back on the earth in the future for more exploration about Mars.

“Go Percy, Go…”

Properties of the Mars perseverance Rover

Perseverance is a Mars Rover, looks like a car but has attached with modern robotic technology. The rover used in this mission is manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in California, United States.

Rover Dimension

It has a dimension of “3 × 2.7 × 2.2″ meters (9.8 × 8.9 × 7.2 ft).

Length: 3 m or 9.8 ft
Width: 2.7 m or 8.9 ft
Height: 2.2 m or 7.2 ft

Rover Mass

The launch mass of this rover is around 1025 kg or 2260 lb.

Rover Power

It will get the required power from its generator of around 110 watts.

Mission Cost

This has used a lot of new technology so definitely, it would have taken more cost to develop the whole mission. It is an approximately 2.5 billion dollar mission.

Function and Design of Perseverance Rover

In the design of the Mars Perseverance Rover, new technologies and scientific instruments have been used. The parts of this Mars rover have been made in such a way to sustain some damages and durable in that atmosphere while implementing the purposes.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover has used the following parts:

Arms- It has used 5 robotic arms to analyze the geological surface of Mars. The length of these arms is around 2.1 meters.

Wheels- The wheels of this rover is made of aluminum. It is much thicker and durable than NASA’s previous Mars rover Curiosity.

Generator- It has used the multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG). The mass of this generator is around 45 kg (99 lb). This generator has plutonium dioxide to convert the heat into electricity.

The generated power would be 110 watts at launch time but start to decrease a little over mission time. Though the generator MMRTG would provide its function for almost 14 years.

Lithium-ion battery- It has used two lithium-ion rechargeables (Li-ion) batteries. These batteries could be used temporarily in an emergency when the electrical supply needed more.

New Technology Instruments

Percy NASA rover has used such instruments that can work with most of the unstable situations such as dust storms, in the winter season, cold places, and at night.

Here we have mentioned some special instruments used in NASA’s Percy:

1. RIMFAX

RIMFAX (Radar Imager for Mars’ subsurface experiment) is ground-penetrating radar. It will detect the surface structure of Mars, ground rocks properties, ground densities, underground icy water, brine solution to the 10 meters of the depth.

2. MEDA

MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer) is a structure of the set of sensors. It will measure the temperature, pressure, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, the shape of some dust particles.

3. MOXIE

MOXIE (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) is a modern technology to convert Martial carbon dioxide (CO2) into oxygen (O2). As the planet, Mars has 96% CO2 in its atmosphere. So using this technology can be useful for future life plans on Mars. Though oxygen is required fuel for rockets, so this can also be useful for the return trip of the other missions.

4. Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

Ingenuity is a low-weight solar power helicopter used in NASA’s Mars mission 2020 in Perseverance Rover. Its weight is almost 1.8 kg (4 lb). This helicopter has used a camera and will fly around the rover to scout the route for the rover.

The main purpose of the Ingenuity helicopter is to check the flying practicality on Mars. According to the plan, it will fly only 5 times in 30 days.

5. Microphone

NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover has used 2 microphones. It would be useful while landing the rover and collecting the samples.

6. Camera

The perseverance rover of Mars has used 23 cameras at different locations. These cameras are specially made for celestial bodies.

Quick facts about Perseverance rover

The name of the Perseverance NASA mission is “Mars 2020”.
Its function is to search for clues of ancient life and possibilities of life.
Perseverance NASA was launched on 30 July 2020 at 11:50 UTC.
Its launch Location is “Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida”.
Perseverance rover landed on 18 Feb 2021.
The landing location is “Jezero Crater on Mars”.
The time of the mission is around one mars year (687 earth days).
It will collect rock and sand samples to bring them back on earth in the future.

What is the nickname of Perseverance Rover?

The name of this mission is “Mars 2020”. But the actual nickname of the rover is “Percy”. He/she says “call me Percy”.

So, you just checked about facts and important information regarding NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover mission 2020.