NASA on July 30 launched the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. Now, there are three countries barreling towards the Red Planet. And while it may look like a race, well, it's not. It is an exciting time for planetary science, though. n
Perseverance is the third mission to blast off for Mars in the last two weeks. The first to launch this year was the United Arab Emirates' Hope orbiter, which took off via a Japanese rocket on July 19. Then China's Tianwen-1 mission came in next on July 23, sending a rover, lander, and orbiter to the Red Planet. NASA lifted off last. All of these space probes should arrive at their destination in February 2021.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is aware people are calling it a "space race." But this is not the case. In a press conference, he pointed out that instead of seeing it as a competition between the U.S. against other countries, we should "welcome more science."
"We encourage them to share what they learn with the entire world, just as NASA shares what it learns with the entire world, so we look forward to them doing that," Bridenstine said.
The NASA head also added that it's the agency's ninth time to send a robot on Mars, so there's no point for competition. Though the UAE, China, and the U.S. are launching and landing at similar times, they are not racing to get to Mars first.
So, why are they all launching at this time of the year?
It's because every 26 months, the Earth and Mars get so near each other and this period only lasts a very short time. This window of opportunity allows for the quickest and most efficient journey between the two planets. And it closes mid-August, so if these missions miss this period, they would have to wait again for the next window, which would happen in about two years.
In fact, there was another Mars mission originally scheduled this year as well -- a team-up by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia's Roscomos agency. Both organizations were looking forward to blast off the ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin to Mars in July, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and design problems in the astronauts' parachute delayed the flight. The mission has been rescheduled in 2022.
Other than the Perseverance rover, NASA has other space missions as well, including the New Horizons probe in the Kuiper Belt, the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennnu, and a quickly growing commercial crew program.
