The first Martian helicopter that will get to the Red planet aboard the Mars Rover Perseverance, was given an official name – Ingenuity ("resourcefulness" in English). About reports the press service of the jet propulsion Laboratory of NASA.
"When the helicopter Ingenuity will take off from the surface of Mars, he will demonstrate those qualities that we most appreciate. Its creation and installation on the Rover demanded a lot of hard and inventive work, and still more the ingenuity of the team will need Perseverance after its launch. I was very happy to choose another great name, which so well captures the essence of this Mars mission", commented the head of NASA Jim Breidenstein.
In August last year, the Agency has stated that the name for the fifth of the Rover NASA will choose U.S. students. They had to write an essay on the topic of Mars and send them to NASA. In total, the first stage of the competition was attended by more than 28 thousand students.
In mid-January, NASA experts summed up the first stage of the competition and published a list of the 155 semi-finalists. Only one of them, Alex Matero, entrusted to come up with the Rover name and to participate in the ceremony of its launch from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral in July of this year. The boy called the Rover "Persistence," Perseverance.
Another participant of this contest, schoolgirl Vanita Rupani won the right to choose the name for the first Martian helicopter that will go to Mars together with Perseverance. The main task of this unit will be to demonstrate the possibility of flying on the surface of the red planet. In addition, it will help fifth Perseverance to search for those portions of the surface of Mars, where there may be traces of ancient life.
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the Search for Martian life
About plans to build another Mars Rover, the fifth in a row, representatives from NASA announced in December 2012. He had become a kind of heir to the Curiosity Rover, which landed on Mars in August 2012. Initially, the new device has received the informal name "Mars-2020," its official name is Perserverance – approved only in March 2020. It was planned to bring into space in the middle of summer 2020, the fit it needs to make in Jezero crater on the equator of the red planet in February 2021.
From a technical point of view, the fifth, the Rover NASA will full heir Curiosity: this significantly reduced the cost and accelerated the Assembly of the Rover. It cost the space Agency is estimated at $2.46 billion, the Main task Perserverance will not look for traces of fresh water, as its predecessor, and evaluation of the habitability of Mars past and the search for possible traces of life.
This Perseverance will not only study the properties of sediments sedimentary rocks, but also to collect their samples in a special "wardrobe" on Board. Engineers suggest that these minerals on the Earth will return the special joint mission of the European space Agency (ESA) and NASA, which will be sent to the red planet, not before 2026.
