It seems like only yesterday that we started talking about Mars Perseverance, the complete laboratory station. However, and as surprising as it may seem, it will soon be a year and a half since he began his journey to the red planet, at the end of July 2020 and, as close as you remember it, today marks one year since its successful and spectacular landing on the martian surface and that, almost immediately, he shared with us the first image taken by one of his cameras.
During the first few weeks, news about Mars Perseverance was constant, both because of its deployment and start-up, and because throughout its journey it carried an exceptional passenger, the Ingenuity helicopter, andThe first human-designed device to fly on another planet. A device initially designed to take images of Mars, but which proved to be even more useful than expected, becoming an explorer capable of prospecting the terrain that ensures the movement of Mars Perseverance.
During these twelve months, milestones have been achieved, such as the flights of the Ingenuity that I have already mentioned, the taking of samples that, if the plans are fulfilled, will one day reach our planet, and has also had to face adversitysuch as the planned disconnections due to the lack of a direct line of sight between Earth and Mars, and also other unforeseen ones, such as that of a sample that blocked one of the receptacles for them, and that could finally be solved with a vibratory movement which expelled the same back to the surface.
During this year, the Mars Perseverance has taken samples, but has also shared with us a lot of data. From pinpointing the location of what was once a lake on the red planet, to stunning images or even various audio samples captured by the rover. Thus, even if there was no plan to recover the samples taken and bring them to our planet, we could already consider that the mission has been tremendously successful.
Shortly after it landed, just one year ago today, we wondered about the future of Mars Perseverance, just as shortly after its launch, when it still had much of its journey to complete, about our relationship, each day more special , with our planetary neighbor. A relationship that, if the plans are fulfilled, will become substantially closer over the next decadeboth with the arrival on Earth of the samples that are currently being taken, as well as the still distant and dubious but undoubtedly attractive plan to bring human beings to the surface of Mars.
During this year, Mars Perseverance has taken some very important steps in this direction, so at the very least, has earned a resounding congratulations after his first year of service In mars.
More information: NASA
