‘Perseverance’ grants a bright future for mankind!

S.T.E.M education continues to push forward the boundaries of what’s real and not. Our survival as human race relies deeply on our ability to push forward and innovate in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math; and now is not even a question of why we need to continue evolving in these areas, but rather on how fast we are doing so.

Long days are gone from the times where we, as a race, just needed food and shelter to survive. Our big advancements in technology pushed forward by the invention of computers and the Internet has undoubtedly generated a dependence on how to mitigate the negative side effects of evolution: greenhouse effect, increasing fossil fuel consumption, deforestation, contamination, and climate change are all problems that are leading us to the need of exploring space and continue making the impossible possible.

Now, here I’m not pretending to excuse our actions as human beings, this is not a blog intended to judge our own actions and how we’ve managed to continue destroying our own planet; but rather highlight the importance that our kids continue learning the needed skills to assure our own survival.

The Perseverance Rover, which landed on the red planet’s surface on February 18, 2021, (Check out NASA’s Website for the latest news on Perseverance) is a great example of how the biggest minds in STEM-related fields are working to learn more about Mars and getting everything ready to send humans to the not-so-distant future. This topic is very exciting! And I wanted to make the most out of this blog entry to highlight the key aspects of this mission to have a better understanding of why we need to continue pushing our kids to engage in STEM-based programs.

This mission alongside many different objectives, differentiates from other missions in my opinion, in 3 key aspects embodied by amazing leaps in engineering, robotics, and scientific investigation.

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

For starters, Perseverance is the first mission designed to test the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter which, yes, will be the first human-made flying object to hover over the planet’s surface! This aircraft is a solar-powered two-rotor craft that will evaluate the ability to take off and hover in the thin air of the planet which would bring great benefits to expand the exploration capabilities and prepare for safely flying artifacts and vehicles.

Mission objective: MOXIE

The second HUGE mission objective (which is more important than the cool helicopter) is code-named MOXIE which ultimately intends to try and make breathable oxygen from the planet’s thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere not only to create an environment suitable to sustain life but also to have oxygen at scales large enough that it could be used to provide rocket fuel for future takeoffs. So yes, our scientists are already exploring ways of changing the atmosphere of the planet, how cool is that!!?

The Tesla Rover…

And last, but not least, the third amazing objective the mission intends to accomplish is in the field of Robotics and self-driving technologies. The Perseverance rover is intended to break its forbears with a highly ‘intelligent’ navigation system that allows the unmanned vehicle to navigate freely over the surface without relying on human instructions as much as its predecessors. Much like many self-driving technologies here at home, I think a great way of putting this into perspective is that Perseverance is now the ‘Tesla of Rovers’

All these great advancements sound like something from a science-fiction movie, and maybe if the mainstream media would do a better job at reporting these huge accomplishments, we could have more and more kids interested in learning all about the foundations of what makes every single leap in engineering, scientific, and robotics possible. We might even have more engineers and fewer Youtubers!

So today, when we say that we need to nurture our child’s creativity and love for STEM, we can affirm that we might be encouraging the future scientist, engineer, and astronaut to change the atmosphere of an entire planet and, maybe, even fixing our own to ensure the survival of mankind. Am I being too optimistic here? Please share your thoughts below!

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