NASA's Perseverance spacecraft hits technical trouble on way to Mars, put into 'safe mode'
NASA’s Perseverance rover is on its way to Mars and on Feb. 18, 2021, it is scheduled to land on the red planet’s Jezero Crater. Right now though, it’s been put into ‘safe mode,’ with all but the essential systems of the spacecraft shut down, after it ran into technical trouble after launch.
Safe mode can only be turned off by new commands from mission control, but as of now NASA says it isn’t too worried. The problem, the agency says, was triggered when parts of the spacecraft became too cold in the Earth’s shadow, and safe mode kicked in.
The craft is now said to have returned to its regular temperature, but safe mode has affected communications between the spacecraft and ground control, Business Insider reports . Via NASA’s Deep Space Network , the largest scientific telecommunications network in the world, the rover sent out a signal at 9:15 a.m. EST but NASA did not receive it until 11:30 a.m.
“All temperatures are now nominal and the spacecraft is out of Earth’s shadow,” was the message it sent, according to a NASA press release.
Technical issues aside, NASA hopes the Mars rover will be able to find signs of past microscopic life on the planet, as well as study its geology in preparation for future robotic — and perhaps even human — expeditions.
“Jezero Crater is the perfect place to search for signs of ancient life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in a press release.
“Perseverance is going to make discoveries that cause us to rethink our questions about what Mars was like and how we understand it today. As our instruments investigate rocks along an ancient lake bottom and select samples to return to Earth, we may very well be reaching back in time to get the information scientists need to say that life has existed elsewhere in the universe.”
Among the many high-tech tools on board the Perseverance, the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, is designed to prove that it is in fact possible to convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen.
Also attached to the spacecraft’s belly is the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, perhaps the first helicopter to fly on any planet other than the Earth. Over 31 Earth days, the helicopter will undertake up to five flights on Mars.
The Perseverance forms part of NASA’s Moon to Mars mission, which aims to have the first woman (and the next man) on the moon by 2024.
