ANI
27 Mar 2020, 12:55 GMT+10
Washington D.C. [USA], Mar 27 (ANI): NASA's "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign invited people around the world to submit their names to ride aboard the agency's next rover to the Red Planet. Some 10,932,295 people did just that.
The names were stencilled by electron beam onto three fingernail-sized silicon chips, along with the essays of the 155 finalists in NASA's "veName the Ror" contest. The chips were then attached to an aluminium plate on NASA's Perseverance Mars rover at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 16. Scheduled to launch this summer, Perseverance will land at Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021.
The three chips share space on the anodized plate with a laser-etched graphic depicting Earth and Mars joined by the star that gives light to both. While commemorating the rover that connects the two worlds, the simple illustration also pays tribute to the elegant line art of the plaques aboard the Pioneer spacecraft and golden records carried by Voyagers 1 and 2. Affixed to the centre of the rover's aft crossbeam, the plate will be visible to cameras on Perseverance's mast.
Currently, the coronavirus has not impacted the Mars Perseverance rover launch schedule. The installation was one of the numerous recent activities performed by the Perseverance assembly, test and launch operations team. On March 21, the team began reconfiguring the rover so it can ride atop the Atlas V rocket. Steps included stowing the robotic arm, lowering and locking in place the remote sensing mast and high-gain antenna, and retracting its legs and wheels.
The Perseverance rover is a robotic scientist weighing just under 2,300 pounds (1,043 kilograms). It will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize Mars' climate and geology, collect samples for a future return to Earth, and help pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, is building and will manage operations of the Mars Perseverance rover for NASA. The agency's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management. The Mars 2020 project with its Perseverance rover is part of a larger programme that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through its Artemis lunar exploration plans. (ANI)
Get a daily dose of Philadelphia Herald news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Philadelphia Herald.
More InformationNEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks wavered on Thursday as strong economic data gave further impetus to the Fed ...
AUGUSTA, Maine: On April 12, the Maine Legislature passed a bill to join an interstate compact for social worker licensure ...
AUSTIN, Texas: Reuters reported this week that Tesla will make more than 10 percent of its global workforce redundant amid ...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: On April 13, U.S. Steel shareholders voted in favor of the company's proposed US$14.9 billion acquisition by Japan's ...
NEW YORK, New York - A downturn in Nvidia, and a continuation of Tuesday's sell-off following Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's ...
SAN FRANCISCO, California: Wells Fargo reported a seven percent decline in first-quarter profit, surpassing analysts' forecasts despite increased costs associated ...
BOISE, Idaho: Idaho authorities said that four people died when the vehicle they were traveling in collided with a train ...
DENVER, Colorado: On April 14, Colorado's Democratic-controlled House passed a bill by a vote of 35-27 banning the sale and ...
COLUMBIA, South Carolina: Federal prosecutors said that Christine Mary Livingston, supervisor in a South Carolina prison, accepted more than US$219,000 ...
Israel has established a new police force to stamp out peace activism in the West Bank. National Security Minister Itamar ...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: As Moscow's invasion into Ukraine has dragged on for more than two years, the U.S. and the UK ...
LOS ANGELES, California: Last week, the former interpreter of Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani was charged with bank fraud and ...