NASA will provide more support to this ESA mission -- destined to drill into some ice, on Mars.
We've mentioned this ESA Rosalind Franklin rover before -- and it is a fine example of what may be accomplished without humans being transported to the Red Planet. We are sure that there will be new learnings from the ice on Mars that is deep enough, and old enough, not to have been degraded by surface radiation blasts, over billions of years of time. Here's the latest:
. . .With this memorandum of understanding, the NASA Launch Services Program will procure a U.S. commercial launch provider for the Rosalind Franklin rover. The agency will also provide heater units and elements of the propulsion system needed to land on Mars. A new instrument on the rover will be the first drill to a depth of up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) deep below the surface to collect ice samples that have been protected from surface radiation and extreme temperatures. . . .
“The Rosalind Franklin rover’s unique drilling capabilities and onboard samples laboratory have outstanding scientific value for humanity’s search for evidence of past life on Mars,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA supports the Rosalind Franklin mission to continue the strong partnership between the United States and Europe to explore the unknown in our solar system and beyond.”
Through an existing, separate partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), NASA is contributing key components to the Rosalind Franklin rover’s primary science instrument, the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer, that will search for the building blocks of life in the soil samples. . . .
Here's another reason we are all infinitely blessed -- to be alive, in this time of nearly limitless discovery. . . about how life may arise, universe wide. Onward!
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