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SCIENCE Tuesday 28 July 2020
NASA's next Mars rover is brawniest and brainiest one yet

By MARCIA DUNN surface, Ingenuity will start Perseverance. Other cool
AP Aerospace Writer out like a baby bird, rising stowaways: silicon chips
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. 10 feet (3 meters) into the bearing the names of
(AP) — With eight success- planet's extremely thin at- nearly 11 million people
ful Mars landings, NASA is mosphere and flying for- who signed up, as well as
upping the ante with its ward up to 6 feet (2 me- a small plate showing Earth
newest rover. ters). With each attempt, it and Mars on opposite sides
The spacecraft Persever- will try to go a little higher of the sun with the mes-
ance — set for liftoff this and farther. "It really is like sage "explore as one" in
week — is NASA's biggest the Wright brothers' mo- Morse code tucked into
and brainiest Martian rover ment," said project man- the solar rays. There's also
yet. ager MiMi Aung. She has a plaque paying tribute
It sports the latest landing This illustration made available by NASA depicts the Ingenuity one month to squeeze in to medical workers on the
tech, plus the most cam- Mars Helicopter on the red planet's surface near the Perseverance as many helicopter hops pandemic's front lines. The
eras and microphones ever rover, left. as possible before the rover coronavirus is preventing
assembled to capture the Associated Press moves on to more pressing hundreds of scientists and
sights and sounds of Mars. to discover." enhancements make for geologic work. The future other team members from
Its super-sanitized sample Here's a peek at Persever- a higher mission price tag: could see next-generation traveling to Cape Canav-
return tubes — for rocks that ance: nearly $3 billion. helicopters scouting out eral for the launch.q
could hold evidence of PERSEVERANCE VS. CURI- SAMPLE COLLECTION: distant Martian territory for
past Martian life — are the OSITY: Perseverance will drill into astronauts or even robots.
cleanest items ever bound The six-wheeled, car-sized rocks most likely to hold signs HUMAN BENEFITS:
for space. A helicopter is Perseverance is a copy- of ancient life and stash the Besides the helicopter, Per-
even tagging along for an cat of NASA's Curiosity collection on the ground to severance carries other
otherworldly test flight. rover, prowling Mars since await a future rover. Forty- experiments that could di-
This summer's third and final 2012, but with more up- three sample tubes are on rectly benefit astronauts
mission to Mars — after the grades and bulk. Its 7-foot board this rover, each one at Mars. An instrument the
United Arab Emirates' Hope (2-meter) robotic arm has meticulously scrubbed and size of a car battery will co-
orbiter and China's Quest a stronger grip and bigger baked to remove Earthly vert atmospheric carbon
for Heavenly Truth orbiter- drill for collecting rock sam- microbes. NASA wants to dioxide into oxygen, an es-
rover combo — begins ples, and it's packed with avoid introducing organic sential ingredient for rocket
with a launch scheduled 23 cameras, most of them molecules from Earth to the propellant and breathing
for Thursday morning from in color, plus two more on returning Martian samples. systems. Another instru-
Cape Canaveral. Like the Ingenuity, the hitchhiking Each tube can hold one- ment, zapping rocks with
other spacecraft, Persever- helicopter. The cameras half ounce (15 grams) of lasers to identify organic
ance should reach the red will provide the first glimpse core samples, and the goal molecules and minerals,
planet next February fol- of a parachute billowing is to gather about a pound carries samples of space-
lowing a journey spanning open at Mars, with two (0.5 kilogram) altogether suit material. NASA wants
seven months and more microphones letting Earth- for return to Earth. NASA to see how the fabrics with-
than 300 million miles (480 lings eavesdrop for the first hopes to launch the pickup stand the harsh Martian
million kilometers). time. Once home to a river mission in 2026 and get the environment. It will be the
NASA Administrator Jim delta and lake, Jezero Cra- samples back on Earth by 2030s at best, according
Bridenstine doesn't see it ter is NASA's riskiest Martian 2031 — at the soonest. to NASA, before astronauts
as a competition. "But cer- landing site yet because of HELICOPTER DEMO: venture to Mars.
tainly we welcome more boulders and cliffs, hope- The 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) COOL STOWAWAYS:
explorers to deliver more fully avoided by the space- helicopter, Ingenuity, will A couple Martian mete-
science than ever before," craft's self-navigating sys- travel to Mars clutching orites are finally headed
he said following a launch tems. Perseverance has the rover's belly and, a few home, or at least slivers of
review Monday, "and we more self-driving capability, months after touchdown, them to be used as calibra-
look forward to seeing too, so it can cover more attempt to fly solo. Once tion targets by laser-shoot-
what it is that they're able ground than Curiosity. The dropping onto the Martian ing instruments aboard

Stone tools suggest earlier human presence in North America

By MALCOLM RITTER est known North American Autonomous University
AP Science Writer archaeological sites date of Zacatecas and oth-
NEW YORK (AP) — Stone to before 15,000 years ago ers say they found stone
tools found in a Mexican and extend maybe to tools and debris from tool-
cave suggest that peo- 17,000 years ago, says an- making that they dated
ple were living in North thropology professor Tom back as far as 26,500 years
America as early as about Dillehay of Vanderbilt Uni- ago. There's some indica-
26,500 years ago, much versity in Nashville, Tennes- tion that some artifacts This undated photo provided
earlier than most scientists see. He was not involved go back beyond 30,000 by Ciprian Ardelean in July
accept, a new study says. in the cave study. years, but so far the evi- 2020 shows a stone tool
It's a new step in the diffi- In Wednesday's issue of dence isn't strong enough found below the Last Glacial
cult and contentious pro- the journal Nature, scien- to make a firm claim, Ar- Maximum layer from a cave
cess of establishing when tists reported on artifacts delean said.Ardelean in Zacatecas, central Mexico.
people arrived in North found in a mountain cave said he believed people Associated Press
America from Asia. Pres- in the state of Zacatecas probably used the cave was unable to recover
ently, the most widely ac- in north-central Mexico. as a winter shelter for short any human DNA from the
cepted dates for the earli- Ciprian Ardelean of the periods of time. His team cave.q