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SCIENCE Friday 31 July 2020
NASA launches Mars rover to look for signs of ancient life

czar, Scott Hubbard.
To definitively answer the
life-beyond-Earth question,
the samples must be ana-
lyzed by the best electron
microscopes and other in-
struments, far too big to fit
on a spacecraft, he said.
"I've wanted to know if
there was life elsewhere in
the universe since I was 9
years old. That was more
than 60 years ago," Hub-
bard said from his Northern
California cabin. "But just
maybe, I'll live to see the
fingerprints of life come
back from Mars in one of
those rock samples."q

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Thursday, July 30, 2020, in Cape
Canaveral, Fla.
Associated Press
By MARCIA DUNN in the cosmic ocean," he masks and sat spaced the craft will go from 12,000
AP Aerospace Writer said. "Every time, it gets apart at the Cape Ca- mph (19,300 kph) to a com-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) me." In addition to poten- naveral control center plete stop. It is carrying 25
— The biggest, most sophis- tially answering one of the because of the coronavi- cameras and a pair of mi-
ticated Mars rover ever most profound questions of rus outbreak, which kept crophones that will enable
built — a car-size vehicle science, religion and phi- hundreds of scientists and Earthlings to vicariously tag
bristling with cameras, mi- losophy — Is there or has other team members away along.
crophones, drills and lasers there ever been life be- from Perseverance's liftoff. Perseverance will aim for
— blasted off for the red yond Earth? — the mission About an hour into the Jezero Crater, a treacher-
planet Thursday as part of will yield lessons that could flight, controllers applaud- ous, unexplored expanse
an ambitious, long-range pave the way for the arrival ed, pumped their fists, ex- of boulders, cliffs, dunes
project to bring the first of astronauts as early as the changed air hugs and pan- and possibly rocks bearing
Martian rock samples back 2030s. tomimed high-fives when the chemical signature of
to Earth to be analyzed for "There's a reason we call the rocket flawlessly broke microbes from what was
evidence of ancient life. the robot Perseverance. out of orbit around the a lake more than 3 billion
NASA's Perseverance rode Because going to Mars is Earth and began hurtling years ago. The rover will
a mighty Atlas V rocket hard," NASA Administra- toward Mars. store half-ounce (15-gram)
into a clear morning sky in tor Jim Bridenstine said just "We have left the build- rock samples in dozens of
the world's third and final before liftoff. "In this case, ing. We are on our way to super-sterilized titanium
Mars launch of the summer. it's harder than ever before Mars," Perseverance's chief tubes.
China and the United Arab because we're doing it in engineer, Adam Steltzner, It also will release a mini
Emirates got a head start the midst of a pandemic." said from NASA's Jet Pro- helicopter that will attempt
last week, but all three mis- The U.S., the only country pulsion Laboratory in Pasa- the first powered flight on
sions should reach their des- to safely put a spacecraft dena, California. another planet, and test
tination in February after on Mars, is seeking its ninth "That was overwhelming. out other technology to
a journey of seven months successful landing on the Overall, just 'Wow!'" said prepare the way for future
and 300 million miles (480 planet, which has proved Alex Mather, the 13-year- astronauts. That includes
million kilometers). to be the Bermuda Trian- old Virginia schoolboy equipment for extracting
The plutonium-powered, gle of space exploration, who proposed the name oxygen from Mars' thin car-
six-wheeled rover will drill with more than half of the Perseverance in a NASA bon-dioxide atmosphere.
down and collect tiny geo- world's missions there burn- competition and watched The plan is for NASA and the
logical specimens that will ing up, crashing or other- the launch in person with European Space Agency
be brought home in about wise ending in failure. his parents. NASA's Deep to launch a dune buggy in
2031 in a sort of interplan- China is sending both a Space Network of track- 2026 to fetch the rock sam-
etary relay race involving rover an orbiter. The UAE, a ing stations had some dif- ples, plus a rocket ship that
multiple spacecraft and newcomer to outer space, ficulty locking onto signals will put the specimens into
countries. The overall cost: has an orbiter en route. from Perseverance early orbit around Mars. Then an-
more than $8 billion. It's the biggest stampede in the flight. But officials other spacecraft will cap-
NASA's science mission to Mars in spacefaring his- announced with relief a ture the orbiting samples
chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, tory. The opportunity to fly couple of hours later that and bring them home.
pronounced the launch between Earth and Mars a solid communication link Samples taken straight
the start of "humanity's first comes around only once had been established. from Mars, not drawn from
round trip to another plan- every 26 months when the If all goes well, the rover meteorites discovered on
et." "Oh, I loved it, punching planets are on the same will descend to the Martian Earth, have long been con-
a hole in the sky, right? Get- side of the sun and about surface on Feb. 18, 2021, in sidered "the Holy Grail of
ting off the cosmic shore of as close as they can get. what NASA calls seven min- Mars science," according
our Earth, wading out there Launch controllers wore utes of terror, during which to NASA's now-retired Mars