Rover launches in search of Martian life
CAPECANAVERAL: The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built - a car-size vehicle bristling with cameras, microphones, drills and lasers - blasted off on Thursday as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analysed for evidence of ancient life.
Nasa’s Perseverance rode a mighty Atlas V rocket into a clear morning sky in the world’s third and final Mars launch of the summer. China and the UAE got a head start last week, but all three missions should reach the red planet in February after a journey of seven months and 480 million kilometres.
The plutonium-powered, six-wheeled rover will drill down and collect tiny geological specimens that will be brought home in about 2031 in a sort of interplanetary relay race involving multiple spacecraft and countries.
The overall cost of the mission was more than $8 billion.
Besides the life-on-mars question, the mission will yield lessons for the arrival of astronauts in 2030s.