Perseverance Martian landing point named after Octavia E Butler msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
An image sent back to Earth by NASA’s Perseverance rover shows the tread tracks left behind by its first drive on Mars on March 4. (NASA / JPL-Caltech)
Fifteen years after her death, Seattle science-fiction author Octavia E. Butler has joined an exclusive pantheon of space luminaries memorialized on Mars.
Today NASA announced that the Red Planet locale where its Perseverance rover touched down last month is called Octavia E. Butler Landing, in honor of a Black author who emphasized diversity in tales of alternate realities and far-out futures.
“Butler’s protagonists embody determination and inventiveness, making her a perfect fit for the Perseverance rover mission and its theme of overcoming challenges,” Kathryn Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist for Perseverance, said in a news release. “Butler inspired and influenced the planetary science community and many beyond, including those typically under-represented in STEM fields.”
With the evolution of technology and new resources, one of the biggest curiosity has been to find answers to the century-old question - are we alone in the universe? With humans aiming to be an interplanetary species in the future, the nearest attraction remains Mars. Several countries are in the race to the Red planet as it drives the human imagination of a future colony on the surface. The US, China, India, UAE have all successfully sent rovers, probes and spacecraft into the Martian orbi, deepening the understanding of the planet mired with ancient craters and signs of polar ice caps.
Alternative Title: Carl Sagan Memorial Station
Mars Pathfinder, robotic U.S. spacecraft launched to Mars to demonstrate a new way to land a spacecraft on the planet’s surface and the operation of an independent robotic rover. Developed by NASA as part of a low-cost approach to planetary exploration, Pathfinder successfully completed both demonstrations, gathered scientific data, and returned striking images from Mars. Its observations added to evidence that, at some time in its history, Mars was much more Earth-like than it is today, with a warmer, thicker atmosphere and much more water.
Mars Pathfinder, as seen by its rover, Sojourner, on July 8, 1997, three days after the rover rolled out onto the surface of Chryse Planitia. Visible in front of Pathfinder are a portion of the air bags that cushioned its impact at touchdown, Sojourner s ramp, and the rover s tracks leading from the lander.