 the Perseverance Mars Rover, which landed in February of 2021, making it the fifth rover that the US sent to the planet, as well as the most technologically advanced one. And they used some 

 to arrive safely to Mars and traveled 472 million kilometers

. The rover landed near one of the many craters of Mars, Jezero Crater, which scientists think used to be a river, making it one of the key places to start the research. 

“Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth”.

According to NASA’s official website, they wanted to investigate the red planet to complete four goals: 

 Understand the processes and history of climate on Mars.

Understand the origin and evolution of Mars as a geological system.

 the biggest volcano in our solar system, as well as the deepest canyon and fluctuating weather. It has two moons in its orbit, Phobos and Deimos, which scientists think are asteroids who have been ‘captured’.

Phobos and Deimos - Image: Brown University

Mars used to be a relatively warm planet, which could have hosted some form of life in the past. It now has a high temperature of 30℃, but at night it can drop to -140℃, with an average of 

The air is also made up mostly of carbon dioxide (CO₂) with several percent of nitrogen. Basically, it’s unbreathable. 

Elon Musk explained that we could terraform Mars by exploding nuclear bombs over its polar caps. He had said that the radiation wouldn't be an issue since the explosion would be in space over the poles, but the heat release would vaporize the frozen carbon dioxide to greenhouse warm the planet and melt the water ice.”

Perseverance is also able to turn some of the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere into oxygen. This technology and information could be used for terraforming Mars in the future.

Elon Musk, leading humans towards a multiplanetary race?

d as NASA’s partner to land astronauts on the Moon. 

“NASA is getting ready to send astronauts to explore more of the Moon as part of the 

 program, and the agency has selected SpaceX to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface. 

At least one of those astronauts will make history as the first woman on the Moon. Another goal of the Artemis program includes landing the first person of color on the lunar surface.” 

However this isn’t the first collaboration between SpaceX and NASA. There have been many more, as NASA has a long history of relying on private companies to shuttle cargo & astronauts to the International Space Station. It also helped in the development of SpaceX’s heat shield that will be used to land rockets on Mars. 

Space still remains one of the biggest curiosities and least explored phenomena we have, and little by little we are accomplishing milestones that many years ago would not have been expected. 

Do you think humans will end up colonizing the red planet? Should space exploration be a priority for humanity? 

Will the upcoming years be all about Space, with innovations like 

, providing the human race a common goal and eliminating some of the division between us?

I would really love to see that happen. I’ve 

 about astronauts looking down at the Earth and feeling a strong sense of common humanity inside a fragile blue dot. The feeling is called the 

 and it leaves them perplexed about why we fight.

NASA, SpaceX & Mars: Will the next decade’s zeitgeist be space once again?

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