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A new space race is underway this summer: the race to Mars, featuring the United States, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China. Let’s take a look at the technologies each country is sending to explore the red planet.
United States
NASA’s Perseverance rover
NASA’s Perseverance rover seems to be the most reliable bet for operating on the Martian surface. It’s anticipated to land in Mars’ Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021.
The 2,315-pound Perseverance is essentially an upgraded version of the Curiosity rover. But while the vehicles look virtually the same on the outside, Perseverance is much different than its predecessor on the inside. The next-gen vehicle features an improved and more precise landing system and hardened wheels to better navigate the planet’s rough terrain. It is equipped with a different set of scientific tools as well: while Curiosity’s instruments measured if Mars was habitable, Perseverance’s suite of seven onboard instruments will be geared toward finding evidence of actual life. Its instruments include a ground-penetrating radar to search for subterranean ice, visual imagery, and a technology designed to generate oxygen from the Martian atmosphere that is 95 percent carbon dioxide by volume.
Perseverance will use an autonomous, rocket-powered platform that operates a crane arm to gently lower the rover onto the surface—the same system used by Curiosity.
NASA’s Ingenuity experimental Mars helicopter.
Perseverance won’t be alone—it’ll be accompanied by NASA’s Ingenuity, a prototype helicopter designed specifically for flight on Mars. Weighing a mere four pounds, Ingenuity will perform a series of short test flights and take airborne images of the planet’s surface, including shots of the rover. If the results are promising, it may open up possibilities for using helicopter technology on future Mars missions—they could be deployed to explore caves or rough terrain that the rovers otherwise can’t access.
United Arab Emirates
The UAE mission—the first of which launched on July 19—is the first planetary science mission by an Arab Islamic country. The autonomous sedan-sized Hope orbiter will arrive at Mars in February 2021, parking itself in an elliptical orbit above the planet that will bring it to within 13,000 miles of the surface. Hope will take daily measurements of the atmosphere to trace day-to-day changes as well as extreme weather conditions—resulting in the first planetary map of Mars’ atmosphere. The UAE will share its data with the international scientific community, with no embargo—which could make the tiny country a major player in Mars research.
Hope carries three instruments: a high-resolution camera that will capture images of the surface and search for ice; an infrared spectrometer to measure dust, ice and water vapor in the lower atmosphere; and an ultraviolet spectrometer to analyze the planet’s upper atmosphere.
“The geology of Mars has been studied quite extensively,” said Sarah Al Amiri, UAE’s Minister of State for Advanced Sciences and the mission’s science lead. “We are only just getting started on the atmosphere.”
China
Earth’s rising aerospace superpower isn’t about to be left behind when comes to Mars. China’s Tianwen-1 mission, which launched on July 23, is the country’s first foray to the red planet.
Not surprisingly, details about the mission have been hard to come by due to the country’s sometimes secretive space program. What we do know is that the mission will operate differently than those of its competitors. Tianwen-1 consists of three parts: an orbiting vehicle, a lander and a rover.
The spacecraft will spend a few months orbiting Mars, waiting for the best moment to send down its lander and rover. It’s anticipated that the Chinese lander will touch down in Utopia Planitia, in the same neighborhood where NASA’s Viking 2 landed almost 50 years ago.
The lander will deploy a heat shield, retrograde thruster and a parachute on entry—similar to past U.S. missions. But it will attempt an incredibly complex maneuver: to pause in mid-descent, 328 feet (100 meters) above the ground, to scan the area and rapidly choose the best landing place. It will then navigate horizontally to that location before descending gently to the planet’s surface.
The 530-pound rover will deploy seven instruments to study the alien landscape—including a radar to search for underground ice and water, a laser tool to study rock composition, and technologies to study charged particles in the atmosphere. The vehicle, which is powered by solar panels, also features two cameras and other detectors. The mission aims to create a geological map of the planet, as well as study soil composition and magnetic fields.
Why the Rush?
There’s a tight window in which to launch these missions because Mars and Earth are at their closest only every 26 months. The rovers need to get off the ground by August 15, 2020—or get put into storage until September 2022.
“That means the least distance to travel, and therefore you require less fuel in your spacecraft,” said Al Amiri. “Typically, spacecraft that are leaving Earth have more than 50 percent of their weight comprised of fuel, which drives costs up and adds a layer of complexity—which is why you would always launch during this window.”
[embedded content]Using the Hohmann transfer orbit to reach Mars efficiently.
One mission will already miss the 2020 window: the Rosalind Franklin rover, which is part of the joint Europe-Russia ExoMars program, developed parachute problems and other difficulties that couldn’t be resolved in time for a launch this year.
The race isn’t going to be easy. More than half of humanity’s missions to the red planet have ended in failure—and of the three contestants, only NASA can claim any success (and its fair share of disappointments too).
“We’re entirely on new ground,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “That’s what makes it so exciting.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
