[ad_1]
Space travel – The American space agency Nasa has just taken a sample from an asteroid, now the next big challenge is already open: a sample from Mars. This would take a long time, but NASA is well positioned for it, a report now confirms.
According to an expert report, the US space agency NASA, in collaboration with the European space agency ESA, is ready to take a sample from Mars and then send it to Earth.
After decades of scientific and technical advancements in studying Mars, NASA is now in a good position to perform such a maneuver, according to a report released Tuesday (local time) by a NASA-set up panel of experts. It would be the first sample from another planet that would be brought to Earth.
A significant challenge
Bringing a sample from Mars to Earth is something “NASA must do as a member of the global community,” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said. “We know we have challenges ahead of us, but that’s why we’re looking into everything closely. And that’s why we ultimately have great success.”
But there is still a long way to go until then: the “Perseverance” rover, which departed for Mars in July, already has a drill and small tubes to store the samples on board. The current plan is for “Perseverance” to leave full pipes on Mars, which a “pick-up robot” provided by Esa collects and delivers to another robot developed by NASA, which in turn transports them into orbit around Mars. There an ESA spaceship would regain control, which would bring the samples back to Earth, but not until the 1930s.
Great news
For the report, the commission, led by former Orbital chief David Thompson, has asked experts from NASA and ESA as well as industry and science since August. The report’s findings are excellent news for the project, said David Parker, ESA’s director of human space flight.
It was only in October that NASA’s “Osiris Rex” spacecraft was the first US missile to take a sample from an asteroid during a complex maneuver lasting several hours. Asteroid sample Bennu is expected to be sent back to Earth in about three years.
In 2005, the Japanese “Hayabusa” spacecraft landed on an asteroid and in 2010 brought the first soil samples ever collected from such a celestial body to Earth. There have been other flights to asteroids, but so far no other spacecraft have returned material to Earth.
Landing on Mars in 100 days
NASA’s “Perseverance” rover had exactly 100 days and 268 million kilometers to land on Tuesday, NASA announced. The rover is expected to land on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
