Perseverance landed safely on Mars yesterday. It was thrilling and inspiring to watch the final minutes. If you get tired of seeing horrible things on the news, spend some time googling information about Perseverance. It’s uplifting, even as it touched down.
I think my favorite part was learning about future Mars missions. I mentioned yesterday that Perseverance would be collecting soil that will be returned to Earth. What I didn’t mention was that Perseverance itself was not sending the samples back to Earth. It will collect the material, put it in uber-clean vials, and leave it on the Mars surface. A different lander will pick up the vials and return them to Earth. This mission hasn’t left yet, and it will be many years before we get the samples back home. I think it is awesome that NASA is thinking so far in the future.
The best part is, by the time the Mars samples return to Earth, the next generation of scientists will be the ones to study it. If you know STEM kids in middle or high school right now, they might be the ones working in the 2030s with the samples collected this year. Thanks to rovers like Perseverance and a positive outlook of the decades to come, today’s budding scientists have a bright future.
One of my favorite comics is Strange Planet, and today’s panel was perfect.
