The Rover Perseverance will send a meteorite into space
Photo: NASA
The meteorite was found in Oman in 1999.
A fragment of a meteorite Sayḩ al Uhaymir 008 (or SaU 008) will go to Mars July 30 — about 600,000 years after he left the Red planet, writes “New time”.
The Rover will use Perseverance meteorite SaU 008 to calibrate your sensitive scanners and tools, seeing it as a point of reference for other stones, with whom he will face in his journey across the surface of Mars, explained the researchers.
“That little stone is the real story. It was formed about 450 million years ago, was thrown off Mars by asteroid or comet approximately 600,000 to 700,000 years ago, and then landed on the Ground; we don’t know exactly when, but maybe 1000 years ago. And now it’s back to Mars,” said Caroline Smith, head of collections of the Earth Sciences and the chief curator of meteorites at the natural history Museum in the UK.
The meteorite was found in Oman in 1999, and the fragment SaU 008 is part of the collection of the Museum of natural history since 2000. Tiny bubbles of gas trapped in the rock accurately represent the atmospheric conditions of Mars.
The meteorite is a fragment of basalt, a rock which is widely distributed on Earth, it among others consists of such minerals as pyroxenes, olivines and feldspars.
A small piece of Sau 008 will install the module SHERLOC, a spectrometer that will use a laser to analyze the chemical and organic composition of the Martian rocks. Hand the original of the Martian meteorite has made this study more accurate and reliable.
“The SHERLOC instrument is a valuable opportunity to prepare for a manned flight into space, as well as to conduct basic scientific studies of the Martian surface,” says curator of extraterrestrial materials Marc fries of the Space center of a name of Johnson.
The launch of the spacecraft, which will deliver to Mars a Rover Perseverance and a piece of the meteorite is scheduled for 30 July at 14:50 Minsk.
We add the last of the Mars missions have one goal — a search for traces of life on Mars. So it you want to know more, since experts believe that no more planets similar to Earth than Mars, in terms of size, the presence of a metal core inside, even the days we have are almost the same as on Mars. But, as we know on this planet now, no signs of life. However, there is a theory that earlier Mars was the same as the Earth populated, there were certain forms of life, and so they need to investigate to understand what the future holds for our planet.
We will remind, in the end of 2019, CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk said the timing and requirements for vehicles which will need to not only reach Mars, but there to create a stable base.
According to the head of SpaceX, the development of Martian infrastructure will take about 20 years.
Answering questions in his blog, Musk stressed that the starting cost of a flight to orbit the Earth on the StarShip ship, equal to $2 million, allows you to create “self-sustaining city on Mars” at a reasonable price.
To bring this idea to life, SpaceX will need to build and run about 1000 space ships for 20 years. This term stems from the fact that the planetary alignment allows for achievable mission to Mars every two years.