Recently, the Mars rover contest had officially come to an end and a consensus was made on the name for the new rover. Through 28,000 submissions, 155 semifinalists were reviewed by 4,700 judges, bearing nine finalists. Out of 770,000 votes, Perseverance was the name chosen for the rover, submitted by 7th grader Alex Mather from Springfield, Virginia. Due to Earth’s perfect alignment with Mars, Perseverance’s launch is planned for July 2021 at the Kennedy Space Station, where Mather and his family will watch Perseverance make its way to Mars.

Perseverance will be equipped with 23 cameras, a robotic arm, and a small helicopter to guide its exploration on Mars. It possesses a nameplate with the name “Perseverance”, and its design came from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Compared to the past rover, Curiosity, Perseverance is better equipped to travel outside of an enclosed area on Mars, making many opportunities to better explore Mars.

Aneesh Acharya, senior, establishes the crucial connection of rovers to astronomical success for humankind. “Rovers are particularly best for space exploration because they can endure harsh environments much better than the human race,” notes Acharya. “If a human were to try and research Mars’ climate without any protective gear, they would become victim to Mars’ toxic soil, low gravity, lack of water, cold temperatures, and more.”

On its arrival, the rover will touch down in Jezero Crater, a 3.5 billion year old lake that used to exist on Mars. Perseverance’s main purpose on Mars is to explore hints of past life, if there are any, through soil and rock samples. Additionally, its tools for research may expand the idea of studying weather patterns and bring new information regarding the possible conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen.

In addition, Perseverance will remain on Mars for one Mars year, which is approximately 687 Earth days, where the rover has four main missions. The first is to unravel the idea of human habitability on foreign planets by comparing Earth’s various environments to Mars. Next, Perseverance will seek biosignatures of living creatures, or microbial life, in order to get a grasp on foreign species survival. Then, Perseverance will cache samples of rocks and soil from the surface of Mars, and finally, scientists will have a grasp on how to prepare for human exploration by testing oxygen production.

Acharya expands the bigger picture of astronomical exploration and rovers. “The main purpose of all of NASA’s rovers is to conduct research on extraterrestrial environments so we can, perhaps, find a new resource to use,” accounts Acharya. “We are one step closer to finding habitable environments outside of Earth, and with this, we have a chance at a fresh start to humanity.”

Alongside the rover’s personal missions, NASA has respective missions to accomplish for each of the rover’s tasks. First, the determination of whether life arose on Mars is crucial to understanding human life’s capabilities to survive on the planet. Scientists figure this out with the next two accomplishments, which are to characterize the climate of Mars, as well as the geology that it sustains. When all of this is accomplished, then humankind will finally be able to explore Mars, and possibly even successfully colonize the red planet.

Check out our first news burst about the start of the competition here.