WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Thursday congratulated the NASA team responsible for the successful landing of a six-wheeled rover last month on Mars and for giving the country a “dose of confidence” in a time when the nation’s reputation as a scientific leader has been shattered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, who spoke in a video conference with the leadership of the space agency’s jet propulsion laboratory team, expressed his fear of the Perseverance landing on February 18th.
Perseverance, the largest and most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars, traveling about 300 million miles in nearly seven months, as part of ‘an ongoing search to study if there was ever life on the planet.
“It’s much bigger than landing Perseverance on Mars,” Biden told members of the NASA team. “It’s about the American spirit. And you brought it back ”
Biden watched on television how Perseverance touched Mars last month and called NASA Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk to convey his congratulations to the Perseverance team. But Biden said he wanted to speak directly to the team, which he said deserved merit not only for the astronomical feat, but also for raising the U.S. reputation at a time when it is so necessary.
He recalled that the leader of another nation recently told him that the United States, once seen as competent, saw its position fall with its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
But Biden, who has turned a pandemic that has killed nearly 520,000 Americans his top priority, said landing on Mars offered the nation some inspiration at a time when it is very necessary.
“We can land a rover on Mars, we can beat a pandemic,” Biden said. “And with science, hope and vision, there’s nothing damn good that we can’t do as a country.”
The Perseverance landing occurs amid a recent madness on Mars between rival space programs.
The NASA team that landed on February 18 was the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China orbited Mars around Mars in the days before February. The three missions withdrew in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars.
The plutonium-powered vehicle the size of NASA’s car reached Jezero Crater and reached NASA’s smallest and most complicated target to date: a 5-by-4-mile strip in an ancient river delta full of pits, cliffs and rocks. Scientists believe that if life ever flourished on Mars, it would have happened between 3,000 and 4 billion years ago, when water was still flowing on the planet.
For the next two years, the rover, nicknamed Percy, will use its 2-meter arm to drill and collect rock samples that contain possible signs of past microscopic life.
Three to four dozen gypsum-sized samples will be sealed in tubes and set aside to be eventually recovered by another rover and taken home by another rocket.