How NASA is almost on mars?

S1 Ep:4 Space Titan

NASA almost there!

Journey To Mars

Introduction 

This post will know how NASA is furthermost in the race to mars and their future plans. How NASA is almost on mars? you will know in a few bit. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a maverick U.S. government organization established in 1958 for the research and development of vehicles and activities for the exploration of space within and external of Earth’s atmosphere. The organization consists 4 mission directorates:

1.  Aeronautics Research, for the evolution of advanced aviation technologies
2. Science, handling with programs for understanding the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe, the planetary system, and Earth.
3. Space Tech., for the development of space science and exploration technologies;
4.  Human Exploration and Operations, concerning the management of crewed space missions, including those to the International Space Station(ISS), are also operations associated with launching services, space transportation, and space communications for crewed and robotic exploration programs.

Nasa Achievements

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is liable for unique scientific and technological achievements in human spaceflight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications that have had widespread impacts on our nation and the world. Forged in retaliation to early Soviet space achievements, NASA was built on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government organizations because of U.S. civil aerospace locus research and development.

When NASA begins business on October 1, 1958, it accelerated the work already started on human and robotic spaceflight. NASA's first high-profile program was Project Mercury, an attempt to find out humans could survive in space. This was followed by Project Gemini, which used spacecraft built for 2 astronauts to perfect the capabilities needed for the national objective of a man trip to the Moon by the end of the 1960s. Project Apollo achieved that objective in July 1969 with the Apollo 11 mission and expanded thereon with five more successful lunar landing missions through 1972. In the wake of the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test Projects of the mid-1970s, NASA's human spaceflight efforts again resumed in 1981, with the Space Shuttle program that continued for 30 years. The Shuttle wasn't only a breakthrough technology but was essential to our next major step in space, International Space development. Let the race begin.

Nasa Mars Mission 

Nasa Perseverance Rover

Recently, NASA sent a perseverance rover to mars. This rover was sent to check the signs of past life on the planet mars and to check that if there were still signs of life on Mars. The rover would also collect soil and rock samples in test tubes strapped to the belly of the rover. After coming back to Earth, the soil will later be tested to check the signs of microbial life. As planned, the rover’s main science experiments will need to wait a couple of more months, while engineers still test its scientific instruments and produce for the first helicopter flight on another world. Eventually, Perseverance will deploy an arsenal of tools, including a drilling bit, a close-up camera, and multiple chemical sensors to look for signs of past life in Martian rocks. Perseverance will collect approximately 30 tubes full of Martian rock and soil during its mission, laying them down on the Martian surface for a future mission to retrieve and fly back to Earth for scientists to analyze. Using images from navigation cameras placed strategically all over the rover, also imagery from orbital satellites like NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists and mission operators will work together to drive Perseverance to promise science areas. If a spot seems particularly interesting, Perseverance will collect a sample, seal it during a small tube, and leave the tube on the surface for return to Earth. At the guts of Perseverance’s life-scanning tools are 2 Raman spectrometers—science instruments that shine ultraviolet on a rock or soil patch and skim the reflected light signature to determine what chemical compounds are present. Raman spectrometers are particularly well-suited to detecting organic compounds associated with life as we all know it. 

Rover packed and ready

Perseverance has one on its robotic arm named SHERLOC, and another inside SuperCam, an instrument at the highest of the rover’s mast that also contains a laser to zap rocks several meters away! When this happens, no earlier than 2031, it will be the first time that a sample has ever been returned from Mars. Tucked beneath Perseverance’s belly is a small helicopter drone named Ingenuity. Once on Mars, Perseverance will lower Ingenuity to the facet and move 100 meters away. After engineers on Earth perform extensive system checks, Ingenuity will explore the rover’s surroundings during a 30-day flight test campaign. As a technology demonstration, Ingenuity isn't tied to Perseverance’s mission success, but we may learn important lessons about the feasibility of flying vehicles on other worlds. 

Mars quadcopter (SRC: NASA)

In 2034, NASA’s Dragonfly spacecraft, an 8-bladed drone-like craft called a quadcopter, will explore Saturn’s largest moon Titan.  The concept dates back to 1996 when Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan first approached NASA with the idea. Two years later, a Planetary Society-funded microphone launched aboard NASA’s Mars Polar Lander, marking the world’s first crowd-funded science instrument to fly to another planet. Sadly, the lander crashed.

Conclusion

Whether it might be SpaceX or Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin they still can't catch up to NASA as it has the most experience out of all by sending people to the moon for the first time. While these private agencies are good they still can't compare to NASA and only look up to it. Hope you find how NASA is almost on the mars.

For the next episode, we will be talking about the agency which sent the first person to space.