NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover abruptly switched to 'Safe Mode' after launch, find out why

Shortly after its launch, NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rovers switched to "safe mode” due to an engineering glitch. On July 30, 2020, NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance was launched on its onward journey toward Red Planet at 7:50 a.m. EDT. Mars Rover was riding an Atlas V rocket into after being lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. According to a portal, NASA officials confirmed that such glitches have been fairly common in past and that y expected it to happen with Perseverance Rover as well. 

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NASA Mars Rover-Perseverance: Why did it switch to ‘Safe Mode’?

NASA Perseverance Mission team revealed news of Mars Rover switching to Safe Mode within minutes of launch. reason for this being that temperature in craft got a bit colder than engineers had anticipated. temperature rose when rocket was passing through Earth’s shadow. According to NASA, craft's temperature quickly bounced back, hence re is thing to be concerned about. NASA also confirmed that technical glitch would t pose any threat to its Perseverance Mission. A NASA official emphasised in a media statement given post lift-off, that Safe mode is, as name implies. It is designed to be safe for craft and its contents. 

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How long does it take to reach Mars?

According to NASA’s official website, with current state of techlogy, it will take Mars Rover seven months to reach and land on Red Planet. Hence, after commencing its onward journey to red planet on July 30, Mars Rover will land on Martian surface on February 18, 2021. According to NASA reports rover will land in Mars' Jezero Crater.

It is important to te that distance between Earth to Mars varies a lot, because of Earth’s orbit around Sun. Earth’s orbit around sun is smaller than Mars’ orbit as Earth is third planet from sun, while Mars is fourth. Metaphorically speaking, once can compare this distance to that of two cars on a racetrack, and one on inside track and or on outside. 

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Given that, Earth is on inside track, it gets around more quickly. However, sometimes it’s close to Mars when it’s making a pass. At or times, it’s far away at or side of track. minimum distance from Earth to Mars is about 54.6 million kilometres. When Earth and Mars are farst apart, y can be at a distance of about 401 million km, while aver distance is about 225 million km.

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Is re life on Mars?

According to NASA reports, so far Earth is only place in our solar system that we kw for certain supports life. NASA will also look for life on Mars by searching for telltale markers, or biosignatures, of current and past life. element carbon, for instance, is a fundamental building block of life. Kwing where carbon is present and in what form would tell us a lot about where life might have developed.

Source: NASA

Martian atmosphere consists of 95 per cent carbon dioxide and less than 1 per cent oxygen. However, life as we kw it, cant survive with that kind of atmospheric composition. According to reports of a portal, if carbonate minerals were formed on red planet’s surface by chemical reactions between water and atmosphere, it could indicate that water had been present on Martian surface for a long time. May be long eugh for life to have developed. One of main goals of Mars Perseverance Mission is to find signs of life on Red planet.