Mars: The Next Frontier
Mars: The Next Frontier
March 16, 2021
On February 18th cheers were heard around the world as NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed in an ancient lakebed on Mars. This is NASA’s most targeted mission to search for life outside of our planet.
Astrobiology has never had a more important mission!
Perseverance is the scout for future Mars missions. The sedan-sized rover is equipped with scientific tools designed specifically to look for signs of life on the red planet. This mission is only the first step in this search for life in our solar system. As the rover slowly treks across the Martian surface, it will drill, analyze and contain samples of the surface. The rover’s nuclear battery can’t possibly store 14 years' worth of samples, so the rover will be dropping the samples like a trail of breadcrumbs behind it to be later captured by future NASA missions. Scientists believe the only true way to identify life is to bring samples back to Earth to be analyzed by the most sophisticated equipment available to humanity
Just imagine, the first person to set foot on Mars is alive today!
Perseverance is just a reminder of what our future holds. The egg drops, pasta bridges and water rockets our kids are building today are prepared to design or even fly future manned missions to Mars. Imagination Station’s mission is to spark that excitement and curiosity for science. NASA’s Perseverance rover is an accumulation of many successes and failures we have had trying to reach this new frontier. The educational environment that Imagination Station offers both inside and outside its walls is the best way to create not just future workers, but future innovators.