On this day in 1976, we landed an ambitious mission on Mars –– the Viking 2 mission.
One of a pair of identical spacecraft, Viking found a place in history when it became the first U.S. mission to successfully land on Mars and return images of the surface.
Viking imaged and collected different types of data on the Martian surface. It also conducted experiments specifically designed to look for possible signs of life.
These experiments discovered unexpected chemical activity in the Martian soil but provided no clear evidence for the presence of living microorganisms.
Viking didn’t find unambiguous signs of life on Mars, but it made astrobiologists wonder if we devised the right tests. To this day, the results from Viking are helping to shape the development of life detection strategies at NASA.
So, what’s next in our search for life?
Our Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is the first mission designed to seek possible signs of past Martian life. For astrobiologists, the answers to questions about Mars’ habitability are in Perseverance’s “hands.” The robot astrobiologist and geologist launched earlier this year on July 30 and will touch down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.
Discover more about Viking and the history of exploration at Mars with our “Missions To Mars” graphic history novel here.
When our Perseverance Mars rover lands on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021, it will bring along the Ingenuity helicopter.
This small-but-mighty craft is a technology demonstration that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Its fuselage is about the size of a tissue box, and it weighs about 4 pounds (1.8 kg) on Earth. It started out six years ago as an implausible prospect and has now passed its Earthbound tests.
Here are six things to know about Ingenuity as it nears Mars:
1. Ingenuity is an experimental flight test.
This Mars helicopter is known as a technology demonstration, which is a project that aims to test a new capability for the first time with a limited scope. Previous technology demonstrations include Sojourner, the first Mars rover, and the Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeStats that flew by Mars.
Ingenuity does not carry any science instruments and is not part of Perseverance’s science mission. The only objective for this helicopter is an engineering one – to demonstrate rotorcraft flight in the thin and challenging Martian atmosphere.
2. Mars won’t make it easy for Ingenuity.
Mars’ atmosphere is around 1% the density of Earth’s. Because of that lack of density, Ingenuity has rotor blades that are much larger and spin faster than a helicopter of Ingenuity’s mass here on our planet. It also must be extremely light to travel to Mars.
The Red Planet also has incredibly cold temperatures, with nights reaching minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (-90 degrees Celsius) in Jezero Crater, where our rover and helicopter will land. Tests on Earth at the predicted temperatures indicate Ingenuity’s parts should work as designed, but the real test will be on Mars.
3. Ingenuity relies on Perseverance for safe passage to Mars and operations on the Martian surface.
Ingenuity is nestled sideways under Perseverance’s belly with a cover to protect the helicopter from debris during landing. The power system on the Mars 2020 spacecraft periodically charges Ingenuity’s batteries during the journey to the Red Planet.
In the first few months after landing, Perseverance will find a safe place for Ingenuity. Our rover will shed the landing cover, rotate the helicopter so its legs face the ground and gently drop it on the Martian surface.
4. Ingenuity is smart for a small robot.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will not be able to control the helicopter with a joystick due to delays communicating with spacecraft across interplanetary distances. That means Ingenuity will make some of its own decisions based on parameters set by its engineering team on Earth.
During flight, Ingenuity will analyze sensor data and images of the terrain to ensure it stays on a flight path designed by project engineers.
5. The Ingenuity team counts success one step at a time.
Ingenuity’s team has a long list of milestones the helicopter must pass before it can take off and land in the Martian atmosphere.
Surviving the journey to and landing on Mars
Safely deploying onto the Martian surface from Perseverance’s belly
Autonomously keeping warm through those intensely cold Martian nights
Autonomously charging itself with its solar panel
Successfully communicating to and from the helicopter via the Mars Helicopter Base Station on Perseverance
6. If Ingenuity succeeds, future Mars exploration could include an ambitious aerial dimension.
The Mars helicopter intends to demonstrate technologies and first-of-its-kind operations needed for flying on Mars. If successful, these technologies and flight experience on another planet could pave the way for other advanced robotic flying vehicles.
Possible uses of a future helicopter on Mars include:
A unique viewpoint not provided by current orbiters, rovers or landers
High-definition images and reconnaissance for robots or humans
Access to terrain that is difficult for rovers to reach
Could even carry light but vital payloads from one site to another
Temperatures are increasing due to human activities, specifically emissions of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane.
Heat and the energy it carries are what drive our planet: winds, weather, droughts, floods, and more are expressions of heat. The right amount of heat is even one of the things that makes life on Earth possible. But too much heat is changing the way our planet’s systems act.
My World’s on Fire
Higher temperatures drive longer, more intense fire seasons. As rain and snowfall patterns change, some regions are getting drier and more vulnerable to damage, setting the stage for more fires.
2020 saw several record-breaking fires, both in Australia in the beginning of the year, and in the western U.S. through northern summer and fall. Smoke from fires in both regions reached so high into the atmosphere that it formed clouds and continues to travel around the globe today.
In the Siberian Arctic, unusually high temperatures helped drive at least 19 fires in the region. More than half of them were burning peat soil – decomposed organic materials – that stores a lot of carbon. Peat fires release vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, potentially leading to even more warming.
The Water’s Getting Warm
It wasn’t just fire seasons setting records. 2020 had more named tropical storms in the Atlantic and more storms making landfall in the U.S. than any hurricane season on record.
Hurricanes rely on warm ocean water as fuel, and this year, the Atlantic provided. 30 named storms weren’t the only things that made this year’s hurricane season notable.
Storms like Eta, Delta, and Iota quickly changed from smaller, weaker tropical storms into more destructive hurricanes. This rapid intensification is complicated, but it’s likely that warmer, more humid weather – a result of climate change – helps drive it.
The Ice Is Getting Thin
Add enough heat, and even the biggest chunk of ice will melt. That’s true whether we’re talking about the ice cubes in your glass or the vast sheets of ice at our planet’s poles. Right now, the Arctic region is warming about three times faster than the rest of our planet, which has some major effects both locally and globally.
This year, Arctic sea ice hit a near-record low. Sea ice is actually made of frozen ocean water, and it grows and thaws with the seasons, typically reaching an annual minimum extent in September.
Warmer ocean water led to more ice melting this year, and 2020’s annual minimum extent continued a long trend of shrinking Arctic sea ice extent.
A Long Trend
We study Earth and how it’s changing from the ground, the sky, and space. Using data from sensors all around the planet, we calculate the global average temperature, working with our partners at NOAA.
Many other organizations also track global temperature using their own instruments and methods, and they all match remarkably well. The last seven years were the hottest seven years on record. Earth is getting warmer.
We also study the effects of increasing temperatures, like the melting sea ice and longer fire seasons mentioned above. Additionally, we can study the cause of climate change from space, with a bird’s eye view of increasing carbon in the atmosphere.
The planet is changing because of human activities. We’re working together with other agencies to monitor changes and understand what this means for people in the future.
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Hello!! Its wonderful to be able to ask questions, thank you!
About Perseverance, does it have a self-repair option? And as Curiosity is still operational, will they run missions together? Or will they split up to cover more distance?
Is this a sign that we're close to being able to set foot on Mars?
My final question is how do you receive the messages from such a long distance?
Thanks for all your hard work! 加油/Good luck!
“Is this a sign that we are close to being able to set foot on Mars?”
Thank you for joining the #CountdownToMars! The Mars Perseverance Answer Time with expert Chloe Sackier is LIVE!
Stay tuned for talks about landing a rover on Mars, Perseverance’s science goals on the Red Planet, landing a career at NASA and more. View ALL the answersHERE.
Earth is a big weird planet. With so much going on, it’s easy to forget some of the many, many processes happening here. But at the same time, some stuff is so unexpected and just plain strange that it’s impossible to forget. We asked around and found out lots of people here at NASA have this problem.
Here are some facts about Earth that live rent free in our heads:
Earth has a solid inner core that is almost as hot as the surface of the Sun. Earth’s core gets as high as 9,800 degrees Fahrenheit, while the surface of the Sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dust from the Sahara fertilizes the Amazon rainforest. 27.7 million tons blow all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to the rainforest each year, where it brings phosphorus – a nutrient plants need to grow.
Ice in Antarctica looks solid and still, but it’s actually flowing – in some places it flows so fast that scientific instruments can move as much as a kilometer (more than half a mile!) a year.
Speaking of Antarctica: Ice shelves (the floating part of ice sheets) can be as big as Texas. Because they float, they rise and fall with the tide. So floating ice as big as Texas, attached to the Antarctic Ice Sheet, can rise and fall up to ~26 feet!
Melting ice on land makes its way to the ocean. As polar glaciers melt, the water sloshes to the equator, and which can actually slow the spin of Earth.
Even though it looks it, the ocean isn’t level. The surface has peaks and valleys and varies due to changes in height of the land below, winds, temperature, saltiness, atmospheric pressure, ocean circulation, and more.
Earth isn’t the only mind-blowing place out there. From here, we look out into the rest of the universe, full of weird planets and galaxies that surprise us.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
That’s a wrap! Thank you all for the wonderful questions.
NASA Mars Perseverance Rover Mission Engineer Chloe Sackier answered questions about how we prepared for the mission, Perseverance’s entry, descent, and landing, and what Perseverance will do once on Mars.
We hope you had fun today and learned a little bit about our robotic astrobiologist landing on Mars on February 18th. You won’t want to miss this! Tune in to NASA TV HERE starting at 2:15 p.m. EST.
If today’s Answer Time got you excited, team up with us to #CoutdownToMars! We created a virtual Mars photo booth, have sounds of Mars to listen to and more for all you Earthlings to channel your inner Martian. Check out ways to participate HERE.
📣 Attention, space explorers! Our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope presents: two new coloring pages! Unleash your creativity to bring these celestial scenes to life.
Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, smiles out at us from our first coloring page. She’s considered the mother of our Hubble Space Telescope because she helped everyone understand why it was important to have observatories in space – not just on the ground. If it weren’t for her, Hubble may have never become a reality.
The Roman Space Telescope is named after her to honor the legacy she left behind when she died in 2018. Thanks to Nancy Grace Roman, we’ve taken countless pictures of space from orbiting telescopes and learned so much more about the universe than we could have possibly known otherwise!
The second coloring page illustrates some of the exciting science topics the Roman Space Telescope will explore. Set to launch in the mid-2020s, the mission will view the universe in infrared light, which is like using heat vision. We’ll be able to peer through clouds of dust and see things that are much farther away.
We anticipate all kinds of discoveries from the edge of our solar system to the farthest reaches of space. This coloring page highlights a few of the things the Roman Space Telescope will help us learn more about. The mission will find thousands of planets beyond our solar system and hundreds of millions of galaxies. It will also help us unravel the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, represented by the gray web-like pattern in the background. With so much exciting new data, who knows what else we may learn?
