NASAs next Mars Rover honored all Medical Workers of Covid19 Globally
According to sources NASA's next Mars rover is honoring all the medical workers on the front lines of the coronavirus battle around the world. With just another month until liftoff, the space agency on wednesday revealed a commemorative plate attached to the rover, aptly named Perseverance. Meanwhile the rover team calls it the COVID-19 Perseverance plate, designed in the last couple of months. The black and white aluminum plate 3-by-5 inches (8-by-13 centimeters) shows planet Earth atop a staff entwined with a serpent, a symbol of the medical community. The path of the spacecraft also is depicted, with its origin from Cape Canaveral.
health care workers were “on front lines keeping us safe” during launch preparations, said deputy project manager Matt Wallace of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Wallace told reporters “They really inspired us, I think, through this period, and we hope that this plate and we hope that this mission in some small way can inspire them in return”.
Moreover the rover's name, Perseverance, has taken on added meaning the last few months, according to nasa officials. It's hard enough preparing a spacecraft for Mars, but doing it in the middle of a pandemic made it even harder, Wallace said. nasa is pressing ahead with a July 20 launch, even as the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Florida. This mission to seek signs of past microbial life on Mars and collect rock and soil samples for eventual return to Earth is considered essential by the space agency. Unlike for SpaceX's first astronaut launch late last month, nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine isn't urging the public to stay home and watch online to avoid crowds.