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NASA Goes All In for the Mars Rover Launch, Calls for Global Countdown

Sometime in the period that begins on July 30 and ends on August 15, NASA’s Perseverance rover will take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on what is without a doubt the most important mission to another planet humanity has ever attempted.
Perseverance Rover to take off by August 15 at the latest 12 photos
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Ever since the rover was in development stages, the American space agency has tried to increase the public’s interest in the mission. Countless photos of the rover, stories about it, details about its instruments and experiments, a naming competition and the plans to send to Mars the names of 11 million people inscribed on three fingernail-sized silicon chips have all been thrown into the marketing mix to make the mission both popular and exciting.

With a last ditch effort to be as visible as possible, NASA now calls on people around the world to get involved in the launch itself, for a “global, collective launch countdown.”

True, the actual launch date has not been set, which means there’s nothing to countdown to yet. Knowing this, the agency is asking people to record themselves counting down and post the videos on social media.

"During these challenging times, no matter where you are, you can participate in this launch and help send this robotic geologist on a mission to explore worlds beyond our own," said in a statement Michael Greene, the director for communications and education at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

To help the time pass along faster, NASA announced the availability of a so-called launch toolkit, a repository that contains all the information one would need to track what’s going on with the launch, from the ability to watch the launch live, to images and details about the mission.

The Perseverance rover, the reason why this mission is taking place, will carry never-before-attempted experiments to Mars, from analyzing soil to generating oxygen. A helicopter will also be sent to the Red Planet for the first time to see if it can fly.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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