(17 Jul 2020) LEAD IN:
NASA is sending a laser-shooting, oxygen-generating robotic ambassador to Mars.
The six-wheeled, car-sized Perseverance rover will hunt for biological signatures that may be lying waiting in ancient Martian rocks.

STORY-LINE:
It's got a name. It's got six wheels. And it's ready to roam the red planet in search of signs of past Martian life.
NASA's "Perseverance" rover is the space agency's most ambitious Mars mission yet, totaling around $3 billion.
And while it may look similar to Curiosity, which is still exploring the red planet, scientists have added a bunch of new capabilities, says the mission's project scientist, Kenneth Farley.
"One of the first things people will see when we get there, while we're using the same landing system that Curiosity used, the Sky Crane, we will have a set of cameras mounted in various places on the spacecraft as it descends through the Martian atmosphere. And we'll also have a microphone," he says.
"So, we'll actually have both video and sound of the entire entry, descent and landing system instead of just suddenly waking up on Mars."
Farley says work to make the rover's landing safer has also resulted in a computer processor which will help Perseverance drive autonomously, making its own navigation decisions without consulting controllers back on Earth.
"What we figured out we can do is retain that processor on the rover for when we're driving. And this will allow us to drive autonomously," he explains.
Perseverance is also leading the way for future crewed missions to the red planet, testing new technologies that could help astronauts on their mission.
Buried deep in the belly of the rover is a so-called "mechanical tree", called "MOXIE", which stands for "Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment".
It will use electrolysis to produce a small amount of pure oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere.
"This will be very useful for astronauts in the future to not have to bring all of their oxygen with them, both to breathe and as a propellant to get them back off of the surface of Mars," explains Farley.
Perseverance will also be carrying NASA's first Mars helicopter.
Scientists are using "Ingenuity", a four-pound (1.8-kilogram) solar-powered helicopter, to prove that powered flights can be accomplished on the red planet.
"This will be the first time we demonstrate flight on another planet, and that's really important as an exploration tool," explains research scientist Bethany Ehlmann.
"One of the things that Perseverance will be able to do is fly further ahead of the rover to take images and recon the path, better images than we'll able to get from orbit."
Aside from gathering samples for later return to Earth, Perseverance is equipped with a number of science instruments to search for evidence of past Martian life.
"When we drive up, deploy the arm on the Perseverance rover, you can abrade a little bit of the rock and then we can look with the Sherlock instrument to see whether that rock has organic materials," explains Ehlmann.
And, just like NASA's Curiosity rover that's been roaming the Martian surface since 2012, Perseverance is equipped with a stone-zapping laser.
But now scientists have added a microphone, so they can analyze the sound it makes too.
"We fire that laser at rocks and soils on Mars and we look at the light from the emitted plasma to tell what elements are in the rocks," explains Ehlmann.
The spacecraft will travel more than 300 million miles (483 million kilometers) before reaching Mars next February.

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