Why go 'horse and buggy' to Mars when we could go supersonic?
BY DOUGLAS MACKINNON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 06/27/20 12:00 PM EDT As it was during the recent launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster, carrying the Crew Dragon and its two-person crew toward a rendezvous with the International Space Station, the entire space community and much of the worldwide general public are truly excited about the planned July 22 launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.
They should be.
NASA considers the 2,300-pound Perseverance rover to be a “robotic scientist.†Its astrobiology mission, much like the introduction to “Star Trek,â€is to seek out new life — in this case, “signs of past microbial life on Mars.†In addition, Perseverance will characterize the Martian climate and geology, collect rock and soil samples, fly a drone over the surface, and serve as the latest stepping-stone for human exploration of the Red Planet.
It’s exciting and inspiring.
But, along with that excitement and promise comes a serious and potentially troubling disconnect. When Perseverance launches atop the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 541 booster, if you squint your eyes just right, it will seem exactly the same as when Viking 1 was launched on Aug. 20, 1975, to touch down on the Martian surface on July 20, 1976. The point is that, in the 44 years between the Viking 1 landing and the launch of Perseverance, we are using basically the same chemical rocket propulsion technology.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/504522-why-go-horse-and-buggy-to-mars-when-we-could-go-supersonic