OVER the course of just 10 days in February 2021, three missions arrived at Mars.
The first was the United Arab Emiratesās Hope orbiter, which entered orbit on 9 February. Hope is the UAEās first interplanetary mission. While some of its systems couldnāt be tested on Earth, the entry went smoothly.
āThese missions are complementing each other, technically or scientificallyā
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āIt was a once in a lifetime experience ā a terrifying one, exhausting, but a very good one,ā says .
The next day, Chinaās Tianwen-1 mission joined Hope in orbit. Tianwen-1 is an ambitious mission, with an orbiter, lander and rover. After three months of testing instruments and making sure the landing site was free of obstacles, the orbiter released the lander and the Zhurong rover, which arrived at the surface on 14 May, making China the third country to land a rover on Mars.
āThese missions are complementing each other, whether itās technically or scientifically, and they will all help us develop the next round of Mars missions,ā says Sharaf.
The third to arrive at Mars was NASAās Perseverance rover on 18 February. One of its goals is to collect and set aside samples to be returned to Earth by NASAās next mission to Mars. āSample return has been a decade away for decades ā itās still a decade away, but itās started,ā says NASAās .
The Perseverance mission also carried the Ingenuity helicopter to Mars, the first drone to fly on another world. It has been remarkably successful ā it was originally planned to make five test flights, but it had made 17 by early December, many of which were longer and more complicated than any of the planned tests. āWe had orbiters and then landers and then rovers, and now it looks like we can fly as well,ā says Farley.
Perseverance has found volcanic rocks that appear to have been altered by contact with water, giving us insight into the ancient lake that used to cover its landing site. Zhurong has taken many images of the Martian terrain. Hope has imaged Marsās aurora and seen unexpected structures in the atmosphere.
āWhile the reasons are not laid down yet as to why weāre seeing what weāre seeing, itās very exciting,ā says Hessa Al Matroushi, the Hope missionās science lead.
āAt the beginning thereās always different puzzle pieces, and as you get more data they start to interlock,ā says Farley. With all these missions at Mars, the number of puzzle pieces will only increase, each bringing its own set of questions. But as the puzzle grows, our picture of the Red Planet will become clearer.
2021 in review
This was a year of tackling great challenges, from the covid-19 pandemic to climate change. But 2021 was also rich in scientific discoveries and major advances.
- Billions of covid vaccinations given unequally
- CRISPR-edited food goes on sale to public
- AI firm DeepMind solves human protein structures
- Space tourism begins ā for billionaires, anyway
- Jian-Wei Pan leads Chinaās quantum computing successes
- When a brain blob in a dish grew a pair of āeyesā
- A helicopter flies on Mars for the first time
- Learning the pros and cons of working from home
- Worldās first malaria vaccine is approved
- COP26 lays the groundwork for a decade of action
- Weather records arenāt just broken, theyāre smashed
