Marte, el enigmático Planeta Rojo, ha fascinado a la humanidad durante siglos, pero solo en los últimos 50 años hemos comenzado a explorar su superficie. Con la llegada del rover Perseverance, nuestra comprensión de Marte ha alcanzado nuevas alturas. Este rover sofisticado está equipado con 23 cámaras, un brazo robótico, láseres y espectrómetros, todos diseñados para analizar el terreno marciano y buscar pistas sobre la posible existencia de vida en este misterioso planeta.
Perseverance no solo está explorando Marte, sino que también está sentando las bases para futuras misiones tripuladas. A través de sus avanzados instrumentos científicos, está recolectando datos cruciales que podrían revelar la historia geológica de Marte y las condiciones que alguna vez pudieron albergar vida. Además, el helicóptero Ingenuity, que acompaña al rover, ha demostrado que el vuelo en la delgada atmósfera de Marte es posible, abriendo un nuevo capítulo en la exploración interplanetaria.
Acompáñenos en este viaje fascinante mientras exploramos los últimos avances en cohetes, rovers y tecnologías de exploración de Marte. Aprenda sobre las misiones actuales y futuras que prometen desvelar los secretos del Planeta Rojo y comprender mejor nuestro lugar en el universo.
**Hashtags:** #ExploraciónEspacial, #Marte, #Perseverance
Marte, rover Perseverance, exploración de Marte, vida en Marte, cohetes espaciales, tecnología espacial, Ingenuity, misión interplanetaria, geología marciana, historia de Marte.
Perseverance no solo está explorando Marte, sino que también está sentando las bases para futuras misiones tripuladas. A través de sus avanzados instrumentos científicos, está recolectando datos cruciales que podrían revelar la historia geológica de Marte y las condiciones que alguna vez pudieron albergar vida. Además, el helicóptero Ingenuity, que acompaña al rover, ha demostrado que el vuelo en la delgada atmósfera de Marte es posible, abriendo un nuevo capítulo en la exploración interplanetaria.
Acompáñenos en este viaje fascinante mientras exploramos los últimos avances en cohetes, rovers y tecnologías de exploración de Marte. Aprenda sobre las misiones actuales y futuras que prometen desvelar los secretos del Planeta Rojo y comprender mejor nuestro lugar en el universo.
**Hashtags:** #ExploraciónEspacial, #Marte, #Perseverance
Marte, rover Perseverance, exploración de Marte, vida en Marte, cohetes espaciales, tecnología espacial, Ingenuity, misión interplanetaria, geología marciana, historia de Marte.
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00:00Inside this rocket is the rover that could find life on Mars if it lands.
00:08We have to go from thousands of miles per hour to zero
00:14and not get a bug in the windscreen.
00:17The new rover is called Perseverance.
00:21Perseverance is the most sophisticated robotic device launched from the Earth's face.
00:28It will look for signs of life on Mars while the Smithsonian scientists
00:33travel the Earth in search of references.
00:35The search for life is one of the greatest questions of humans.
00:39The previous rovers have paved the way.
00:42Now Perseverance could totally change our vision of the universe.
00:47We will only have one chance.
00:50We present you the rocket, the rover and the helicopter
00:54that could change our way of exploring Mars and much more.
00:59It all depends on Perseverance.
01:11February 18, 2021.
01:15The sky is orange.
01:19Under a bright sun, the temperature is minus 62 degrees Celsius.
01:25The eight-year-old Curiosity rover continues its work.
01:30For the rest, Mars is silent like a desert.
01:38But here comes the new neighbor.
01:42After seven months of traveling through space,
01:45the turbulent part of the journey begins.
01:49As the spacecraft encounters the upper atmosphere, it will heat up.
01:55Once it slows down enough, the heat shield will come off
02:01and we will deploy the parachute.
02:05But we're still literally hurling it to the surface,
02:08even if we've been parachuting for some time.
02:14We're talking about an object the size of a car
02:17that weighs almost a ton.
02:20No human is driving it.
02:23But it has seven minutes to try to stop.
02:27Or this Martian explorer will crash and burn.
02:32We present to you Perseverance, our new rover from Mars.
02:44It's a huge beast machine.
02:47And it is full of scientific instruments
02:50that will explore the surface of Mars.
02:53In the NASA's reaction propulsion laboratory in California,
02:57they are assembling the Perseverance in a sterilized room.
03:01If it wants to find life, it can't carry any life in it.
03:06It's really important to make sure that if we do find something from Mars,
03:10we have to make sure that it's something that actually came from Mars
03:14and not that it came from Earth.
03:18They are building the most complex rover in history,
03:22including 23 different cameras.
03:27The Mascam Z imitates human sight by capturing panoramic images.
03:33A chemical camera in the robotic arm will be able to enlarge the smallest fragment.
03:38And for the first time in history,
03:41some video cameras will record the descent and landing of the rover
03:45from four different angles.
03:48With Perseverance, for the first time,
03:51we will have the opportunity to make movies.
03:55Some of these cameras reach 5K resolutions.
04:01That would eliminate all the pixelation of this.
04:09Prior to 1965, the best views of Mars came from telescopes located on Earth.
04:15We didn't know what the surface of Mars was like.
04:19In the absence of data, humans dreamed.
04:24We had centuries to conceive ideas about Mars.
04:28Some scientific, others ridiculous.
04:32The popular view of Mars is that it did have life.
04:35There were Martians.
04:37We have a complete science fiction industry based on that concept.
04:41You're right. I will go.
04:44Nothing described the Martian fantasies like the little green hats.
04:49I know. I don't think you'll cause any more problems.
04:53The creative minds went out of control.
04:57Until July 14, 1965.
05:01California landers eagerly awaited a sign of their last attempt to reach Mars.
05:092819
05:21It was intended to take a few pictures of the surface as it flew by.
05:26After a seven-month trip, the Mariner 4 had less than 30 minutes to get the first images close to Mars.
05:35The idea of being able to see something for the first time, in case everything went well,
05:40not only caused a great excitement, but also a tremendous trepidation.
05:45Will it work?
05:47The images arrived in the form of data.
05:50Each photo took six hours.
05:57Finally, the printer was activated.
06:01But Mars seemed dead.
06:07The initial reaction was, wow, it looks like the Moon.
06:12It was just a dry, desolate surface, full of craters.
06:17And I think that kind of crushed the whole romantic idea that there were Martians.
06:25The Mariner 4 took 22 pictures as it passed through Mars.
06:31But they shook the foundations of our little ring of Mars.
06:36It was a huge surprise.
06:39And the beginning of our understanding that Mars is not the Mars of science fiction.
06:45But as a geologist, it seems to me an even better place, with all these amazing things to study.
06:53With each mission, Mars was becoming more and more defined.
06:58The Mariner 6 took 75 photos.
07:02The Mariner 7 took 126.
07:06Then, the first orbiter, the Mariner 9,
07:09circled Mars for a year and took more than 7,000 photos.
07:16Mars was sort of publicly revealed for the first time in the history of science fiction.
07:22Now we saw a lot more than craters.
07:25We saw canyons and what looked like dry streams of rivers.
07:30There were clearly branching systems, channels that were merging in a downhill direction.
07:36And of course, the most likely and logical origin of those channels
07:41was the running water.
07:44The Mariner 7, the Mariner 9,
07:47did not manage to reveal when or why the water disappeared.
07:51But it threw us to a new theory.
07:54Maybe Mars was not like the Moon.
07:57Maybe it looked a lot more like the Earth.
08:05The scientist of the Smithsonian, Ross Irwin,
08:08was very interested in this theory.
08:12The scientist of the Smithsonian, Ross Irwin,
08:15studies how water can shape a planet and possibly trigger life.
08:21About 3,500 million years ago,
08:24Mars had many rivers more or less this size
08:27and they dug valleys the size of the one behind me.
08:32When the Mariner 9 reached Mars,
08:35it was a surprise to see all those valleys everywhere.
08:40Subsequent missions revealed other features similar to the Earth.
08:45In some cases, we have river valleys
08:48where erosion of a mountainous front deposited its sediments
08:51in the form of a valley across or over the basin.
08:54And then we also have deltas.
08:57And just like river deltas that you see here on the Earth,
09:00these river deltas on Mars represented
09:03the deposit of sediment out into a standing water.
09:09All of these eroded valleys and sedimentary deposits
09:12were early evidence of low water
09:15on the surface of Mars.
09:18But it left a lot of unanswered questions.
09:21How long was the water there?
09:24Were these environments favorable for the origin and the existence of life?
09:28If the ancient Mars had water on its surface for long enough,
09:32maybe it could have housed life
09:35and it could have left evidence, just like on Earth.
09:39This type of rock is very good for preserving evidence of possible habitability.
09:44So it's not just indications that this environment
09:47could have been suitable for housing life,
09:50but it's also very good for preserving evidence behind life itself.
09:54Obviously on Mars, we're not looking for fossils,
09:57but we're looking for indications whether there were bacteria
10:02on the surface during those wetter periods of its ancient history.
10:06The only way to observe it more closely
10:09was by getting to the surface.
10:12The Mariner 4 went by.
10:15The Mariner 9 kept going around it.
10:19But the Viking opened the door.
10:26The anticipation for this was very high.
10:29These modules were soft landing on the surface
10:32and looking for evidence of life on the surface of Mars.
10:37In 1976, the Viking contacted the atmosphere of Mars.
10:43One of two.
10:45It would either make history or it would crash violently.
10:53Building the Perseverance to work successfully on Mars is a challenge.
10:58Bringing it there is another thing.
11:02Every two years, the orbits of Earth and Mars
11:05place these planets in the same environment,
11:08but millions of kilometers apart.
11:12Mars is really far away,
11:14and getting a spacecraft there to a specific point
11:17is something that requires a lot of time and attention
11:20to detail to make sure it's done correctly.
11:24We did it incorrectly many times.
11:28In the very early days,
11:30we had accidents on launch pad.
11:32We had spacecraft fail to reach the orbit.
11:35We had spacecraft crash hard on the surface.
11:39We miscalculated trajectories.
11:44We've had a spacecraft that had areas, hardware problems.
11:49The latest news is that there was something weird
11:51during the recording of the first 10 images.
11:54Getting to Mars is really hard.
11:58The Viking arrives,
12:00the first American attempt to land on Mars.
12:03With Viking, there was very much a feeling
12:05of a mission to the unknown.
12:09NASA launched two Viking modules
12:12hoping that at least one would land safely.
12:16We were playing with it.
12:17If it didn't land safely,
12:19we wouldn't get any scientific data.
12:22On July 20, 1976,
12:25Viking 1 began the landing sequence.
12:29It was too far to be controlled in real time.
12:34The Viking was alone.
12:37The famous astronomer Carl Sagan
12:39joined the mission team during those tense moments.
12:43It was his first contact with the seven minutes of terror.
12:48There's this period of time
12:50that the spacecraft has to go through on its own
12:54to land safely on the surface.
13:02That process takes about seven minutes
13:04from the time it makes contact with the atmosphere of Mars
13:07until it goes down on the surface.
13:09The so-called seven minutes of terror.
13:1220 meters, 22 meters per second.
13:15ACS is close to vertical.
13:18Green to the ground, green to the ground.
13:21Finally, Viking 1 sends a signal from the surface.
13:25Ground, we've touched ground.
13:29Fantastic, landing has been confirmed.
13:36Landing on Mars for the first time
13:39I think was the most thrilling and exciting thing you could imagine.
13:45I mean, landing on another planet
13:47and then having the first images of a place
13:50that no human has ever seen.
13:56July 20th, I turned on the TV
13:58and there was a picture of Mars from the surface
14:01and it didn't look at all like the one I had guessed.
14:07It looked like the desert in the southwest of the United States.
14:10People could recognize what they were seeing
14:13on the surface of Mars for the first time
14:15because it was sort of like they were standing there.
14:20Viking 2 landed a few months later.
14:23None of the two modules found any life or water
14:27but they began a new era in space exploration.
14:31We had landed on another planet
14:33and that image will forever be in the textbooks.
14:37The modules sent us mountains of data
14:40but they couldn't move.
14:42They were fixed in one place on the surface
14:45and we always wondered, what if we could get to that rock over there?
14:49The Vikings were revolutionary but they weren't explorers.
14:55And so I think that this is a natural progression
14:57to want to move good in the form of a rover
15:00for the subsequent missions
15:02that allows us to answer those questions.
15:0520 years after the Viking missions
15:08NASA embarked on a surprising driving test.
15:12Sojourner was a little rover,
15:14basically a microwave on wheels
15:16for size comparison.
15:21It was named after the pioneer of civil rights
15:24and the woman Sojourner Truth
15:26and hoped to find a new way to explore Mars.
15:31It was primarily designed to be a demonstration
15:34that we could send a rover to another planet
15:37and have it work successfully.
15:39They inserted it into a module called Pathfinder
15:42and both took off to try and make history.
15:47Ignition of the main engine.
15:49Zero.
15:50And takeoff of the Delta rocket with the Pathfinder of Mars.
15:56After landing and connecting,
15:58the ship took off the first Martian rover.
16:02We have image data.
16:05Although it never moved more than 12 meters from the module,
16:09the Sojourner left its first footprints on Mars in 1997.
16:15This is a great achievement.
16:17Sojourner was kind of a turning point in Mars exploration
16:20because up to that point
16:22I had personally fully appreciated
16:25what mobility could give you.
16:28Mobility was now the main objective.
16:32The new rover, Perseverance,
16:34practices its movements in what NASA calls
16:37the landscape of Mars.
16:44So we're in the landscape of Mars
16:46where our rovers drive over rocky terrain
16:49to develop greater skill
16:51and to get to the most remote places we can get to.
16:56Each wheel has an independent motor
16:58and sprockets to have traction over the fine Martian sand.
17:03The legs are made of titanium,
17:05the same light metal used in the best bicycles.
17:09Perseverance must be strong and agile
17:11if it wants to reach new territories.
17:14Often the most exciting geological areas
17:16we want to study on Mars
17:18are the most difficult to reach.
17:21But it won't go fast.
17:23The maximum speed is 0.16 kilometers per hour.
17:28Interplanetary travel is dangerous.
17:32We're not talking about velocities
17:34similar to those seen in the Daytona circuit.
17:38But it compensates for its lack of speed
17:40with its fantastic scientific equipment.
17:44Perseverance is the most sophisticated
17:46piece of robotic device ever launched
17:48off the face of the Earth.
17:50It has a two-meter robotic arm
17:52that can be extended to analyze the terrain,
17:55lasers to see different wavelengths,
17:59and spectrometers to identify different compounds.
18:03It's a meteorological station,
18:05a geological station,
18:07and a chemical laboratory,
18:09all designed to finally answer
18:11humanity's greatest doubt.
18:14Are we alone in the universe?
18:17Perseverance is the first rover
18:19that really has the ability
18:21to help you get in and answer
18:23that question of,
18:25has there ever been life on Mars?
18:29The search began with the Viking.
18:33It continued with the Pathfinder and the Sojourner.
18:37But maybe bigger
18:39is synonymous with better.
18:42NASA began working with two twin rovers
18:45that made the Sojourner a dwarf.
18:47The Spirit and the Opportunity
18:49were a bold bet.
18:54The new rover of Mars, Perseverance,
18:56is in its final assembly phase.
18:59Scientists are eager to send it
19:01to the surface of Mars.
19:03My job is to supervise the scientific experiments
19:05that the rover will do
19:07as soon as it reaches the surface of Mars.
19:09To carry them out,
19:11the mission directors trust
19:13that it will take at least two terrestrial years
19:15and travel at least 20 kilometers.
19:19By contrast,
19:21our 20th century Martian explorers
19:23did not go very far.
19:27The Sojourner did not move
19:29more than five meters
19:31from its landing site.
19:33It is as if a spaceship
19:35landed in its garden
19:37and only reached the bay.
19:43But in 2004,
19:45the twin rovers took off.
19:48The exploration rovers on Mars,
19:50Spirit and Opportunity,
19:52became the next step.
19:54We wanted to follow the water
19:56and understand its importance
19:58when shaping the surface of Mars.
20:02Spirit and Opportunity
20:04visited ancient riverbeds
20:06to take a first look
20:08at what the water left behind,
20:10this time with tools on the ground.
20:13These guys are about the size
20:15of a golf cart
20:17and bigger than the previous ones.
20:19They're built as if they were
20:21robotic field geologists
20:23on the surface of Mars.
20:29Both rovers
20:31travel several kilometers
20:33and the strange landscape
20:35begins to appear very familiar.
20:37And we started seeing rocks
20:39that had wavy marks on them
20:41like the ones we can see
20:43in the bed of a river
20:45where the water is flowing
20:47and transporting sand
20:49from the surface.
20:51You can walk out your door
20:53and go to the lower part
20:55and see the same kinds of features.
20:57The mission lasted
20:59much longer than expected
21:01and, it seems,
21:03had a stroke of luck.
21:05After a wheel spun,
21:07Spirit accidentally lifted
21:09the white material.
21:11This bright white material,
21:13which turned out to be
21:15almost pure silica,
21:17tells us that it probably
21:19precipitated from relatively
21:21hot water in a volcanic area.
21:23Then Spirit stumbled
21:25with another wild discovery.
21:27It sent us a series of images
21:29that could perfectly be
21:31from Oklahoma.
21:33Whirlpools, direct proof
21:35of the existence of Martian wind.
21:38Then a Mars orbiter
21:40captured a whirlpool
21:42that rose 800 meters high,
21:44causing a shadow
21:46all over the landscape.
21:48We know that on Earth
21:50the wind can alter the landscape.
21:53The scientist of the Smithsonian,
21:55Mariah Baker,
21:57is an expert recognizing
21:59its consequences.
22:01When you go to a desert
22:03or a beach like that,
22:05the wind that blows over
22:07a sandy surface
22:09creates waves or dunes like these.
22:11On Mars, the wind does exactly the same thing.
22:13In fact, it's been the dominant
22:15force for billions of years
22:17since all the water dried up.
22:19Researchers like me
22:21go to the most large dunes
22:23in Colorado and the Great Sand Dunes
22:25in Colorado and the Atacama Desert
22:27in Chile to understand
22:29how certain features form on Mars.
22:31But at some point,
22:33the mysteries begin.
22:35So in this dune,
22:37we see what are known as impact triples,
22:39which are the smallest impact triples
22:41that we see are formed by the wind.
22:43The smallest impact triples
22:45that we see are formed in the sand,
22:47but larger harsh sand
22:49creates larger waves like a whirlpool.
22:51And when we arrived at Mars
22:53and then we saw that these larger whirlpools
22:55were also forming in just fine material,
22:57we realized that we didn't quite understand
22:59how they formed actually.
23:01On Mars, we've got a third of the gravity
23:03that we have here on Earth,
23:05which makes it a little bit easier
23:07to move the sand.
23:09However, we also have an atmosphere
23:11that's a hundred times less dense
23:13than we have here on Earth,
23:15which means that a wind
23:17of 65 kilometers per hour
23:19would yield just a breeze.
23:21And so we need much higher speeds
23:23to actually move the sand
23:25from the surface.
23:27But somehow, the Martian winds
23:29can still cause chaos
23:31all over the planet.
23:35Every year, Mars creates
23:37some sand storms
23:39that last weeks,
23:41but locally.
23:43Although from time to time,
23:45some rise globally.
23:47When you have these occasional
23:49global sand storms,
23:51basically the sand
23:53dusts into the entire atmosphere,
23:55completely obscures the surface.
23:57In 2018,
23:59the sharp features of Mars
24:01disappeared in a few months,
24:03while a thick red cloud
24:05enveloped the entire planet.
24:07The rover Opportunity
24:09was almost 15 years old
24:11and had traveled more than
24:1345 kilometers.
24:15But a great storm
24:17was approaching.
24:19As it looked down,
24:21it saw sand accumulating
24:23in its solar panels.
24:25As it looked up,
24:27it saw less and less.
24:29And suddenly the sky
24:31literally darkened
24:33for the course of a period
24:35of just a few short days.
24:37And the last image we have
24:39looking towards the sun
24:41from Opportunity
24:43effectively shows
24:45it's in total darkness.
24:47The dust storm
24:49blocked out all sunlight
24:51into its solar panels.
24:53Fourteen. Project Manager.
24:55Fourteen.
24:57For eight months,
24:59the Opportunity mission team
25:01sent signal after signal
25:03to try to wake up
25:05the teenage rover.
25:07Mer 1, ship identity 253.
25:09It never did fire up again
25:11to call home.
25:13Finally,
25:15NASA gave up.
25:17This is station 14
25:19from the entire network.
25:21It's a sad day for all of us.
25:23Project Mer is off the net.
25:27Because Opportunity
25:29was operating for 14 and a half years,
25:31everyone fell in love with the rover.
25:35And I can tell you
25:37that the people
25:39who were on those calls
25:41when we decided to end the mission
25:43were very sad.
25:45Opportunity broke
25:47the mold of longevity
25:49for the rovers.
25:51The Perseverance is designed
25:53to be even stronger.
25:55The rover has to survive
25:57all the tests we do to it.
25:59They make the Perseverance
26:01go through all the situations
26:03that can happen to it on Mars.
26:05Big temperature changes
26:07reaching up to minus 128 degrees Celsius.
26:09Sandstorms
26:11that could destroy gears
26:13and blind cameras,
26:15but at least
26:17it works with nuclear energy.
26:19Sandstorms don't worry us.
26:21It's called
26:23Radioisotope Energy System.
26:25Basically, it's a nuclear battery.
26:27It converts the heat
26:29of plutonium decomposition
26:31into electricity.
26:33It could feed the Perseverance
26:35for years if it survives the trip.
26:37You design a rover
26:39for the worst possible conditions.
26:41The worst kind of shaking,
26:43the worst kind of landing.
26:45Everything has to survive.
26:51If the Perseverance lands safely,
26:53it will see much more
26:55than what's on the surface of Mars.
26:57It will take a look
26:59at the layers of history
27:01underground.
27:05On Earth, we see these layers
27:07in very unusual places.
27:11When we do geology,
27:13we often get lucky
27:15to have a cut like this
27:17as a result of a highway
27:19that allows us to see
27:21the layers that have formed over time.
27:23Now, in a lot of cases on Mars,
27:25we won't be able to get land
27:27with a cut like this.
27:29What we'll have to do
27:31is use a remote-controlled
27:33device called Georadar.
27:35I work with Sharad,
27:37an underground probe radar
27:39on Mars.
27:41Sharad transmits signals
27:43and that pulse travels
27:45down through layers like this.
27:47And each time that signal rebounds,
27:49we build up a cross-section
27:51like you see in this cut
27:53in order to know the geological history
27:55of that area.
27:57There might be differences
27:59between sand layers
28:01and layers of ice
28:03in the polar caps.
28:05There's no substitute
28:07for being able to see
28:09what's called a rimfax,
28:11which measures the subsurface layers
28:13that are underneath the rover
28:15down to a shallow depth
28:17shorter than 10 meters,
28:19but with much finer detail.
28:21Now, some day, astronauts
28:23will walk up to an area like this
28:25on Mars and they'll calculate
28:27the geological history
28:29through the layers.
28:31But for the time being,
28:33things like Sharad
28:35are extremely valuable.
28:37It's underground,
28:39but it also has something
28:41that it can see beyond the horizon.
28:49In the NASA propulsion
28:51reaction laboratory in California,
28:53Perseverance has passed
28:55all the tests.
28:57It's a month away
28:59from going home.
29:01It's been built
29:03on the legacy of the rover
29:05Curiosity.
29:07After the Spirit and Opportunity
29:09exploration rovers,
29:11Curiosity became sort of
29:13the big sister of the work.
29:15In 2012, Curiosity
29:17became the next rover
29:19to go to Mars.
29:21So it's about the size
29:23of a small crossover.
29:25In terms of its complexity
29:27and its size,
29:29it's just far better
29:31than anything we've done before.
29:33For the entire country,
29:35Curiosity triggered the Martian mania.
29:37The day of the landing,
29:39Curiosity created a certain
29:41expectation for New York.
29:43At NASA,
29:45the fuss was much bigger.
29:47We're on the surface of Mars.
29:51The largest rover
29:53had landed safely on Mars.
29:55The last Curiosity will take it.
30:01Gale Crater
30:03is the place on Mars
30:05where you think you are
30:07on Earth.
30:09There's evidence
30:11that Curiosity has collected
30:13and that there was
30:15at least one lake
30:17inside that crater.
30:19If you had stayed there,
30:21you would have been
30:23kneeling in running water,
30:25and it would have been drinkable.
30:27I mean, you could have
30:29picked up a glass
30:31and drink it.
30:33Curiosity dug into
30:35the old lake bed
30:37and found thick layers
30:39of sediment that
30:41took thousands of years
30:43to deposit.
30:45For me, that was a really
30:47revealing moment because
30:49suddenly here I was staring
30:51at the lake where I grew up
30:53in northern New York.
30:57And I was kind of
30:59reactive to that theory,
31:01but it was true.
31:03By the way, there was an
31:05ancient lake on Mars,
31:07and it was there for a very long time.
31:09Now we believe that the water
31:11flowed on the surface of Mars
31:13for a thousand million years,
31:15but it dissipated about
31:173,000 million years ago.
31:19The reason why the water
31:21became less stable on the surface
31:23is because the atmosphere
31:25changed and became very thin.
31:27Eventually, it became very dry
31:29and cold.
31:31Perseverance will examine
31:33what the water left behind,
31:35especially in the craters.
31:37Perseverance will land
31:39in a place called Jezero Crater
31:41where we will see that due
31:43to an inlet and outlet channel,
31:45the water was flowing
31:47through the craters.
31:49Perseverance will evaluate
31:51those sediments and those rocks
31:53in search of signs of life.
31:55The search begins with
31:57the incredible rover's arm.
31:59I would say that the robotic arm
32:01is very important for the mission
32:03because it has everything
32:05on hand. And in fact,
32:07as I'm talking to you,
32:09you see me moving my arm
32:11because it's something
32:13we do intuitively also.
32:15And you can control it
32:17as if you were a geologist
32:19on the surface of Mars.
32:21You can lower your arm,
32:23put it in such a place,
32:25or let it show you something
32:27in particular.
32:29At the end of the arm
32:31there is a new set of instruments
32:33that will look for signs of life.
32:35The robotic arm also has
32:37a drill, which is the unit
32:39that will collect the sample.
32:41A drill in a rover
32:43could be the destination
32:45of the sample.
32:47Perseverance will collect
32:49and keep samples
32:51for a possible return
32:53to Earth in the future.
32:55This rover will begin
32:57the most ambitious
32:59robotic space relay
33:01ever attempted.
33:03Perseverance will drill down
33:05and collect samples
33:07and put them in an area
33:09where a second rover
33:11will be built.
33:15They'll be put inside
33:17a small rocket
33:19that will launch into orbit
33:21where it will be captured
33:23and eventually return to Earth
33:25at some time in the future.
33:27If Perseverance finds
33:29signs of life,
33:31we'll need the samples
33:33on Earth to confirm them.
33:35In less than a decade
33:37we could have the first
33:39kind of hologram of a sample
33:41and Perseverance
33:43will be the first step
33:45on that road.
33:47Inside Perseverance
33:49there's another space novelty.
33:53It looks like a spider
33:55learning to fly.
33:59But it's the first
34:01interplanetary helicopter.
34:05Ingenuity,
34:07which is the helicopter
34:09that we'll send
34:11with the Perseverance rover,
34:13is designed as a technology
34:15that for the first time
34:17will show that we can operate
34:19an air vehicle on the surface
34:21of Mars.
34:23NASA created a room
34:25that simulates the atmosphere
34:27of Mars where the takeoff
34:29would be 100 times harder
34:31than on Earth.
34:33With the atmosphere so thin
34:35that the blades can support
34:37each other. It's very light
34:39and the blades are very big
34:41so they can generate enough
34:43lift and they can take off.
34:45The helicopter passes the test
34:47on Earth. On Mars
34:49it will have to fly on its own
34:51because radio signals
34:53take an average of 15 minutes
34:55to travel between Earth and Mars.
34:59It has to be done
35:01in a completely remote way.
35:03We will not be able to use
35:05any type of control control
35:07in real time to control
35:09the direction of the device.
35:11In case it works,
35:13Ingenuity could go ahead
35:15and explore the terrain
35:17for the Perseverance,
35:19take detailed photos
35:21and transmit them to the rover
35:23so it can see where it's going.
35:27All while it flies to the history books
35:29like the first flying vehicle
35:31on another planet.
35:35But first it will have to
35:37take off from this planet.
35:41The first step to Mars
35:43is a trip around the country
35:45from California to Florida.
35:4716 trucks
35:49carry different pieces of the capsule
35:51that will take the Perseverance to Mars.
35:53Those can all be sent separately
35:55but the rover itself
35:57fully assembled
35:59was sent on a plane
36:01to Cape Kennedy.
36:07In the launch pad in Florida
36:09they put the Perseverance
36:11in the capsule,
36:13place it on top of the rocket
36:15and the nerves start to rise.
36:17You're in a situation
36:19where you bend and bend
36:21years and years of work
36:23almost origami style
36:25and you're on top of a giant bomb.
36:29And this thing
36:31goes bang and flies off
36:33and does so in a really fast way.
36:37And so there's a lot of
36:39fear
36:41that something bad
36:43could happen.
36:45The launch day
36:47is approaching.
36:53Just as the new rover
36:55prepares to take off
36:57from Earth
36:59it suffers a devastating blow.
37:03The rover was nicknamed
37:05Perseverance
37:07because the transfer of that rover
37:09to the launch pad
37:11occurred during a global pandemic.
37:15It's hard enough
37:17to get a rover in time
37:19and without making mistakes
37:21but if you add a global pandemic
37:23it adds an extreme amount of stress
37:26If something delays the launch
37:28Mars won't be aligned
37:30so close to Earth
37:32for another two years.
37:34We'll only have one chance.
37:38Perseverance will land
37:40on a Atlas V rocket.
37:42The propellers
37:44come from Alabama
37:46the payload adapter
37:48comes from Texas
37:50and physics comes from experience.
37:53It's not easy
37:55to hit a mobile target
37:57from a cosmic distance.
37:59The navigation team
38:01is trying to get a hole
38:03of 160 million kilometers
38:05in one hit.
38:07The spacecraft is sent
38:09to where Mars is going to be.
38:11Think about a quarterback
38:13who's throwing a lob out
38:15even though his receiver
38:17is 20 or 30 yards away
38:19from where he's going
38:21to hit the same place
38:23at the same time.
38:30What a beautiful morning
38:32here on the space coast.
38:34Welcome, behind us
38:36is the star of the show.
38:38After years of work
38:40the moments before the launch
38:42are like a void.
38:44Currently working.
38:46No problems in the range
38:48or in the launch vehicle.
38:51They have a lot of their lives
38:53invested in this project.
38:57It's like your child
38:59is leaving home.
39:03That is literally
39:05what is happening.
39:07It's just in this case
39:09that robot is going to another planet.
39:11Go Atlas.
39:13Go Centaur.
39:15Go Mars 2020.
39:17Two, one, zero.
39:20Release.
39:26The perseverance of the human being
39:28who launches the next generation
39:30of robots to the red planet.
39:34Image 1.
39:36Atlas 5 has reached supersonic speed.
39:41And we have indications
39:43of the correct separation
39:45of the four propellers.
39:50And we have indications
39:52of the separation of Atlas Centaur.
39:58To have watched this rover
40:00launch from Mars
40:02was an incredible achievement.
40:08There we go, awesome.
40:16When the spacecraft reaches Mars
40:18it's literally going miles per hour.
40:22And so we've got to go
40:24from thousands of miles an hour
40:28to zero
40:30and not have a bug in the windshield.
40:34The heavier the spacecraft,
40:36the harder it will be to stop.
40:40The Viking was quite light
40:42to land with a parachute
40:44and some rear propellers.
40:46The heaviest Spirit and Opportunity
40:48needed giant balloons
40:50to cushion the impact.
40:52Now the Perseverance
40:54of one ton
40:56will take a more complex path.
40:58As the spacecraft
41:00approaches the upper part
41:02of the atmosphere, it will heat up.
41:08Once the spacecraft has
41:10enough of a parachute
41:12with the parachute,
41:14that's when the engines
41:16of the descent phase
41:18will be activated.
41:20They'll slow it down
41:22to allow it to gently fly
41:24over the surface.
41:26And the rover will gently
41:28descend
41:30thanks to a cable system.
41:32As soon as the wheels
41:34touch the ground,
41:36the cables will cut
41:38and the descent system
41:40will fly away.
41:42It's the landing day.
41:44If something goes wrong,
41:46there's nothing the mission
41:48control can do.
41:50The Perseverance
41:52is on its own.
41:54We have the Perseverance.
41:56Received. Green light.
41:58All systems ready
42:00for approach.
42:02There's confirmation
42:04of entry into the atmosphere.
42:06It's the first rover
42:08to record a video of its descent.
42:12Alpha 7.
42:14Deploying parachute.
42:16Deploying parachute.
42:18Perceiving significant deceleration.
42:20Initiating next phase.
42:22Perseverance has gone
42:24to subsonic speed.
42:26We have activated
42:28the landing engines.
42:30Altitude 7.4 kilometers.
42:32Initiating approach maneuver.
42:38Approach maneuver initiated.
42:4020 meters from the surface.
42:46Tango Delta.
42:48Landing confirmed.
42:50Perseverance has landed
42:52safely on the surface of Mars.
42:54Ready to begin
42:56searching for signs of life.
43:00Two months later,
43:02Ingenuity makes its first flight
43:04to another planet.
43:06Our next step
43:08is to explore the cosmos.
43:10You don't have to be
43:12a planetary scientist
43:14to get excited about exploration.
43:16Humans have always
43:18wanted to explore.
43:20Our legacy is a legacy
43:22of exploration and discovery.
43:24A familiar photo
43:26of the Mars rovers
43:28reveals generations of explorers
43:30with Perseverance at the forefront.
43:34Maybe one day
43:36humans will be able to make
43:38that giant leap
43:40and an astronaut will leave his first footprint.
43:42But when he looks down,
43:44he will see that what has allowed him
43:46to leave his footprint
43:48have been kilometers and kilometers
43:50of surface surrounded by a rover.