Perseverance starts searching for traces of life on Mars

The American Space Agency (NASA) said that the Mars rover Perseverance is fully ready to search for traces of

bacterial life on the Red Planet. The rover was previously delivered to the Red Planet along with the Ingenuity helicopter as part of a research mission from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration on February 18, 2021. After seven months of flight, the rover landed in the Jezero Crater.

Its main working element is a two-metera robotic arm on which scientific instruments are placed. The main one is the PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) lithochemical X-ray analyzer. Using X-rays and ultraviolet light, he will study the composition of rocks. A nearby camera will help the device. Its task is to take pictures of samples with sufficient magnification to detect signs of past microbial life in them.

Although the rover hassignificant autonomous capabilities, such as movement across the Martian landscape, hundreds of Earth scientists are still involved in analyzing the results and planning further research. 

The key objective of the Perseverance mission on Marsis astrobiology, namely the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate to pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. Perseverance will be the first mission to collect and store Martian rocks and regolith.

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