Mars became the main attraction point for astronomers, and there’s no wonder why. Our neighboring planet has the potential of sustaining life, and scientists had always been wondering if there are any ‘Martians’ watching us. The Perseverance rover will be launched by NASA this summer with the purpose of roaming the surface of Mars for bringing back some precious data about the Red Planet.
But there’s never enough when it comes to space exploration, and the space agencies across the globe know this very well. While Perseverance will be searching for signs of life on the Martian surface, another rover will lend a helping hand.
Behold the Mars Sample Return mission
NASA, along with ESA (European Space Agency), prepares a new rover to launch to Mars after Perseverance. The purpose is collecting samples and bringing them to a spaceship from Mars’ surface, which can carry them to orbit. At that point, another spaceship is ready to carry the samples back to Earth. Therefore, Airbus already started the work for the Sample Fetch Rover.
But unfortunately, we’ll have a lot to wait until the second rover does its job. The mission is scheduled to start in July 2026 when the launch occurs. The touchdown is on Jezero Crater, the same place where the Perseverance rover will land.
Mars is pretty much the only planet from our solar system capable of sustaining life. Venus is like a vision of Hell having an average temperature of 462 degrees Celsius, Mercury is similar, Jupiter and Saturn are made of gas, while Uranus and Neptune are made mostly of ice. Life as we know it can only exist on solid planets, and Mars seems the only one to qualify.
Hopefully, the Perseverance rover will find signs of alien life dwelling on Mars, but we shouldn’t expect to find little green men with pointy ears necessarily.
