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If there is life on the red planet, our best hope of finding it is perhaps this rock-thirsty rover, which is currently in its final phase of construction (really!) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Next summer, the March 2020 rover will be deployed in the Jezero crater, where it will land in 2021 and spend more than a year roaming the surface of the planet.
The six-wheeled robot is equipped with two powerful cameras, sensors designed to study Martian weather conditions and a radar that can penetrate more than 10 meters deep. But his main mission will be to use his arm 7 meters long, with a turret (the gray device and cylindrical right pointing towards you) to browse the soil in search of a microbial life.
Using ultraviolet lasers, the appendix scans the ground for the presence of organic compounds. Then, it pierces the rock, extracts carrots and deposits them in the body of the robot, all without human intervention. Once consumed, the samples are hermetically sealed in tubes, which the mobile will then deposit at a location to be recovered by a future mission.
Jet Propulsion technicians who evaluate the Mars robot wear white "rabbit suits" that dissipate static electricity and avoid zapping sensitive electronic components. Combinations also serve as a barrier between people and flying equipment – foreign bodies such as germs, hair and dead skin could alter perfectly calibrated experiments. "We do not want to go to Mars to discover something that we brought with us," said NASA deputy chief engineer Keith Comeaux. Engineers are currently testing the scientific instruments of the rover and ensuring that the rock samples are not contaminated while awaiting their return to Earth.
DANIEL OBERHAUS (@DMOberhaus) covers space exploration and the future of energy.
This article appears in the September issue. Subscribe now.
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