By Khrishnav Parasuraman

Three countries are sending robots to Mars. The 3 countries are doing this are the United States, China, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There are a  lot of risks in doing this.

There are two reasons for taking this significant risk. The first reason is that they hope to find microbial life that once existed. The second reason is that they have many questions about Mars, the red planet.

Nasa says now is a good time to do this because this month, Earth and Mars will be aligned on the same side of the Sun. This happens every 26 months, which is good since it minimizes both the travel time and fuel usage.

Nasa’s rover is called Perseverance. This name was chosen from a contest. Alex Mather from Springfield, Virginia, was the winner of this competition.

China’s rover is called Tianwen or questions for heaven.

The UAE rover is called Hope or Amal in Arabic.

The time estimated for these rovers to take this journey is six months and 483 million kilometers.

Sources:

https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/Why-three-countries-are-sending-robots-to-Mars