NASA launched, Thursday, July 30, its mobile robot "Perseverance" to Mars. A new-generation six-wheeled rover, the robot is equipped with a helicopter tasked with testing equipment for future manned missions and looking for traces of past life on the planet.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifted off as scheduled at 7:50 a.m. (11:50 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in clear skies, for a journey of nearly seven months.
This mission, the ninth American mission to the Martian surface, cost $ 2.4 billion. Perseverance, equivalent in size to an automobile, is expected to reach March next February.
We will always persevere. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/RK0iJBAktZ
- NASA (@NASA) July 30, 2020Send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s
"It is unlike any other robot we have sent to Mars before because it has an astrobiological purpose," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told Reuters. "We are looking to find evidence of ancient life in another world," he added.
The United States plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s as part of a program to return to the Moon for testing ahead of more ambitious crewed trips to the Red Planet.
For its part, China successfully launched, on July 24, an uninhabited probe to Mars as part of the country's first independent exploration mission to another planet.
Eight craft - launched by the United States, Europe and India - are currently in orbit around Mars or on its surface, and other missions are planned.
The United Arab Emirates also launched a mission to Mars on July 19 to study its atmosphere.
With AFP and Reuters
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