Mars Rover: 5 Things To Know About Perseverance

ACROSS AMERICA — Could we live on Mars? Has anyone ever lived there?

Those are the basic inquiries of NASA’s Mars rover project, which in recent days made oxygen on the Red Planet for the first time ever.

“Right here in our solar system, if life started twice, that tells us some amazing things about our universe,” Chris McKay, a NASA research scientist, said in a Brookings Institution article on the reasons to explore the planet nearest to Earth.

The Perseverance rover used its MOXIE instrument, a toaster-size object whose name short for Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, to make the oxygen from the carbon dioxide on the planet. It was “a critical first step” in the ultimate goal to have people live on Mars, Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, told CNN.

Space exploration is far from a new phenomenon. Decades ago, the United States was in a race to the moon with the Soviet Union. Now, the reasons for going beyond that are far different and more ambitious.

Here are five things to know about the Mars Perseverance rover project:

What It Accomplishes: In addition to the rover’s MOXIE instrument producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, the rover’s Ingenuity helicopter also made history by becoming the first aircraft to fly on any planet other than Earth.

The key objectives of the mission, according to NASA, include assessing ancient habitability on the planet by examining rocks that preserve signs of life over time; gathering rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth by a future NASA mission; and demonstrating technology for future robotic and human exploration.

Finding that life had existed on Mars, scientists have said, would be significant because it would be the first scientific proof that life is not unique to Earth, and would lead experts to reasonably believe that life could exist elsewhere in the universe as well.

At What Cost? The Perseverance rover project comes with a $2.7 billion price tag, which is actually not as much as some previous NASA missions. The project is only NASA’s seventh-most expensive space trip of all time, and the third-priciest Mars mission.

Vikings 1 & 2, launched in 1975, cost $7.1 billion when adjusting for inflation; and the MSL Curiosity project in 2011 cost $3.2 billion.

It’s also a small cost compared to other initiatives. The entire federal cost of the Mars rover is about the same as running the Department of Defense for 33 hours, slightly less than one day of Social Security spending, and the amount of money Google makes in a week, according to The Planetary Society.

Why People Are For It: For some, such as science journalist Piers Bizony, Mars missions and outer space exploration in general are “Earthly” endeavors in themselves.

“They have to do with forging new and unprecedented diplomatic relationships between countries, while getting engineers with different backgrounds and traditions to work together,” Bizony wrote in a “pro-con” debate on space exploration for a blog in Engineering & Technology.

“It also ensures the development of a good technology base, not only among companies, but among young people who need something to inspire them through the educational system.”

Others have pointed to the possibility of finding minerals on Mars that could speed up technology on Earth, or even addressing issues on the home planet.

Why Others Oppose It: It’s a waste of time, say some, such as author Robin Hanbury-Tenison.

“I have for some time considered space research a gross waste of money, time and effort that could be much better applied to the management of our own planet,” Hanbury-Tenison said in the Engineering & Technology blog counterpoint.

“Whether or not global warming is real, and whether or not we are facing imminent catastrophe on this planet, we are certainly facing serious issues here on Earth, and they are getting worse as we simply watch them,” he said, specifically mentioning the “disappearance of the rainforest, the pollution of the oceans, and increased desertification of an area about the size of England every year.”

Others have agreed that domestic issues, such as improved infrastructure and better-funded social programs, should be addressed before outer space.

“Let's look after our planet first, please,” one Twitter user wrote in response to NASA sharing a video of its second helicopter flight on the planet.

Mars exploration in particular fell low on the priority list of a 2018 Pew Research Center survey that asked Americans to rank NASA’s primary missions in terms of importance. Mars ranked eighth of nine, only ahead of returning to the moon, with only 18 percent of respondents listing it as a high priority.

Why The Name, MOXIE? MOXIE was picked as an acronym, according to NASA, partly because of what the word moxie means.

“Moxie can also be a personality trait,” NASA wrote. “Someone with moxie is bold and adventurous, hardy and spirited.”