NASA's next Mars Rover to honour all medical workers fighting the Coronavirus Battle

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will honour all the medical workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus battle around the world via the rover of its next mission to the Red Planet- 'Mars 2020 Perseverance rover'. The space agency on Wednesday unveiled a commemorative plate attached to the rover, aptly named as 'Perseverance' just before a month of its liftoff.

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The 'COVID-19 Perseverance plate' as the rover teams calls it is a black and white aluminum plate of 3-by-5 inches shows planet Earth atop a staff entwined with a serpent-  the symbol of the medical community. 

"Health care workers were on front lines keeping us safe during launch preparations. They really inspired us, I think, through this period, and we hope that this plate and we hope that this mission in some small way can inspire them in return", said Matt Wallace Deputy Project Manager of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

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According to NASA officials, the name of the rover Perseverance has added meaning in the last few months, as it was difficult to prepare for a spacecraft for Mars in the middle of a pandemic. The preparation included additional work shifts in order to reduce the number of people working on the rover at any one time and ensure social distancing and some had to work from their homes, Wallace said.

Mission to the Red Planet

NASA has planned to launch the Mars rover on July 20 launch, even as the number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise in Florida. This mission will search signs of past microbial life on Mars and collect rock and soil samples for eventual return to Earth. If the rover isn’t launched by mid-August, it would need to wait until 2022 when Earth and Mars are back in proper alignment. A two-year delay could add another USD500 million to the nearly USD3 billion mission.

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(With inputs from agency) (Image Twitter/NASA)