PERSEVERANCE ROVER

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Context

• Perseverance Mars rover’s Mastcam-Z camera has captured Phobos - Mars’ potato-shaped moon or satellite crossing the face of the Sun. The eclipse lasted a little over 40 seconds.

 

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKK7vS2CHC8

 

About

• Perseverance, nicknamed Percy, is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the crater Jezero on Marsas part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission.
• Perseverance has been active on Mars for 130 sols (133 Earth days) since its landing.
• Following the rover's arrival, NASA named the landing site Octavia E. Butler Landing.
• Perseverance has a similar design to its predecessor rover, Curiosity, from which it was moderately upgraded.
• It carries seven primary payload instruments, nineteen cameras, and two microphones.
• The rover also carried the mini-helicopter Ingenuity to Mars, an experimental aircraft and technology showcase that made the first powered flight on another planet on 19 April 2021.

 

Broad Objectives of Mars 2020 Mission ·       Looking for habitability: identify past environments that were capable of supporting microbial life. ·       Seeking bio-signatures: seek signs of possible past microbial life in those habitable environments, particularly in specific rock types known to preserve signs over time. ·       Caching samples: collect core rock and regolith ("soil") samples and store them on the Martian surface. ·       Preparing for humans: test oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere.

 

Read: iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/nasas-perseverance-mission

 

Phobos

• Phobos is the closest and biggest moon of Mars.
• Phobos is the innermost and larger of the two natural satellites of Mars, the other being Deimos.
• Phobos is one of the least reflective bodies in the Solar System.
• It has carbon-rich material found in carbonaceous chondrites.

Carbonaceous chondrites are a class of chondritic meteorites that includes the most primitive known meteorites. They contain a high proportion of carbon (up to 3%), which is in the form of graphite, carbonates and organic compounds, including amino acids. In addition, they contain water and minerals that have been modified by the influence of water. The C chondrites represent only a small proportion (4.6%) of meteorite falls.

 

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/science-technology/nasa-rover-perseverance-captures-eclipse-involving-mars-satellite-phobos--82512