The new Mars Rover of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) pays tribute to all the medical personnel on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Wednesday, June 17, the space agency unveiled a commemorative plate attached to the rover, appropriately called Perseverance. The rover team is calling it the COVID-19 Perseverance plate.
The black and white aluminum plate, measuring 3-inches by 5-inches, illustrates planet Earth atop a staff with a snake, a symbol of the medical community. The spacecraft's course, with its origin from Cape Canaveral, is also depicted.
Health care workers on the front lines to keep people safe, NASA says
Matt Wallace, deputy project manager of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said health care staff were "on the front lines keeping [the team] safe" during launch preparations.
"[We hope] that when future generations travel to Mars and happen upon our rover, they will be reminded that back on Earth in the year 2020 there were such people," Wallace said in a statement.
Wallace also said the healthcare workers "really inspired" the team through this period. "We hope that this plate and [this mission can inspire them in return] in some small way," he added.
The coronavirus pandemic has greatly complicated the lives of members of the Perseverance team, just as it has for the rest of the world. The outbreak struck them just as mission engineers and technicians started its final launch preparations, which will hapen at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The Perseverance Rover
According to NASA officials, the rover's name, Perseverance, has added meaning in the last few months. Preparing a spacecraft for Mars is hard enough, but doing so amid a pandemic has made it even harder, Wallace said.
Additional work changes have been introduced to the number of people working on the rover at any time such as ensuring social distancing. Others, meanwhile, are working from home.
Wallace said the coronavirus really began to affect their operations in mid-March. The team was "at a critical time" in the processing of the spacecraft. All of the elements they needed were down at Kennedy Space Center.
"It had to be done right - you can't make a mistake at that point - and of course, the environment made that a lot more difficult," Wallace said.
Storing Perseverance back to storage for two years would cost millions of dollars
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that taking Perseverance and putting it back into storage for two years would cost at least $500 million, Space.com wrote.
The space agency is pressing ahead with a launch on July 20, even as the number of COVID-19 cases in Florida continue to grow. The space agency considers this mission--to seek signs of past microbial life on Mars and to collect rock and soil samples for eventual return to Earth--as essential.
Also Read: NASA Packs Perseverance Rover Spacecraft Configuration Ahead For Its One-Way Trip
Although the pandemic has forced NASA to close many of its facilities, it continued its work on Perseverance with the appropriate safety precautions. The launch window for the mission closes in mid-August, and if the rover does not get off the ground, it will have to wait for its next chance until late 2022.
Perseverance is one of three Missions to Mars. The United Arab Emirates and China are both planning spacecraft for mid-August launch onto the Red Planet.
