LOS ANGELES - NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance, the most advanced robotic astrobiology lab ever flown to another world, neared the end of its seven-month, 293-million-mile journey on Wednesday, hours away from a daredevil landing attempt on the Red Planet.
The primary objective of the two-year, $2.7 billion mission is a search for evidence that microbial organisms may have flourished on Mars some 3 billion years ago, when the planet was warmer, wetter and presumably more hospitable to life. Mission engineers sent the spacecraft a command on Monday night activating onboard systems for atmospheric entry, descent and landing, Trosper said.
Perseverance is carrying some novel demonstration projects as well. They include a miniature helicopter built to test the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet, and a device to convert carbon dioxide in Mars’ atmosphere into pure oxygen. An 11-minute lag in one-way radio transmission from Mars makes Earthbound control of the rover’s descent impossible.
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