Humanity's third Mars probe in July: Nasa set to deploy first-ever helicopter on red planet.

 NEW DELHI: We could call July 2020 the month of Mars given three space missions over the last 30 days were all aimed at studying the red planet. The last of the three, Nasa's 'Perseverance' rover is set to take-off for the red neighbor on Thursday, is a six-wheeled robot tasked with deploying a mini helicopter called Ingenuity which will pave for future human missions

Nasa's Perseverance Rover

The $2.4 billion mission, slated for liftoff at 7:50 a.m. ET (1150 GMT) from Florida's Cape Carnival, is planned as the US space agency's ninth trek to Martian surface. Launching atop an Atlas 5 rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, the car -sized Perseverance rover is expected to reach Mars next February.

Perseverance is due to land at the base of an 820-foot-deep (250 meters) crater called Jezero, a former lake from 3.5 billion years ago that scientists believe could hold traces of potential past microbial Martian life. This six-wheeled robot is unlike any robot that Nasa has sent to Mars before because it has the purpose of astrobiology and will try to find evidence of ancient life on Mars.

Scientists understand that any real breakthrough on Mars can only be made if we bring back elements to Earth and study them. Perseverance aims to make that happen.

The rover will attempt for the first time to bring Martian rock samples back to Earth, collecting materials in cigar-sized capsules and leaving them scattered on the surface, which will then be retrieved by a future "fetch" rover. That conceptual rover is expected to link up with other spacecraft for an eventual Earth homecoming around 2031.

Perseverance will also carry out an experiment to convert elements of the carbon dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere into propellant for future rockets launching off the planet's surface or to produce breathable oxygen for future astronauts.

Seven minutes of terror                                                                                                                  One of the most complex maneuvers in Perseverance's journey will be what mission engineers call the "seven minutes of terror", when the robot endures extreme heat and speeds during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, deploying a set of supersonic parachutes before igniting mini rocket engines to gently touch down on the planet's surface. 

Three Mars mission in July 2020

The other two Mars probe this month were launched by the United Arab Emirates (The Hope Probe) and China (Tianwen-1) separately in displays of their own technological powers and ambition. While the UAE's Hope Probe aims at studying the atmosphere of Mars with the help of an orbiter; China's Tianwen-1 aims to conduct a global survey of the red planet with the help of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.

The choice of all three countries to send their Mars probe in July 2020 is strategic as they try to take advantage of the period of time when the Earth and Mars are nearest: a mere 55 million kilometers (34 million miles).