New NASA Rover Lands on Mars with a Helicopter

Read the list of sentences from the article.

1. Weighing only 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds), it will be the first powered aircraft to attempt a flight on another planet.

2. The helicopter's short solar-powered flights will help scientists observe Mars from a viewpoint not provided by rovers on the ground or by orbiters high up above the planet.

3. How Ingenuity performs on Mars will provide more information about how humans and other robots might fly there in the future.

4. The helicopter works a little differently than on Earth, as Mars's atmosphere is 99 percent less dense than the atmosphere on Earth.

Which two sentences taken together provide the BEST evidence to support the idea that scientists designed Ingenuity in order to gain a better understanding of Mars?

• 1 and 3

• 1 and 4

• 2 and 3

• 2 and 4

According to the article, Perseverance will lay the groundwork for future trips to Mars.

Which paragraph BEST supports this idea?

• On February 18th, 2021, NASA's new rover, Perseverance, arrived on Mars, a neighboring planet in our solar system. During a seven month journey, it traveled 470 million kilometers (300 million miles) to reach Mars. The exploration robot landed in a region called the Jezero Crater. Near the planet's equator, the crater is 45 kilometers wide (28 miles).

• Perseverance is about the size of a car, has six wheels and, like all rovers, moves on its own. It has two computers which it uses to navigate: one computer figures out where the rover needs to go and the other computer "sees" its surroundings.

• The first two NASA spacecraft to land on Mars were Viking 1 and 2 in 1976. Later, scientists began using moving robotic vehicles called rovers to explore the planet. Perseverance is the fifth rover to land on Mars, joining four other six-wheeled bots named Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity.

• So far, exploring planets such as Mars has only been done using robots. But this could change during your lifetime, as space agencies like NASA and private companies are working to make human missions to Mars a reality. The hope is that the Perseverance mission, along with others, will help achieve this goal.

How were Viking 1 and 2 different from Perseverance?

• Viking 1 and 2 were sent to fly around Mars to gather data, while Perseverance was sent to analyze the soil samples on the planet's surface.

• Viking 1 and 2 were stationary spacecraft that landed on Mars decades ago, while Perseverance is a rover that can explore the planet.

• Viking 1 and 2 were the first attempts to engineer a landing on Mars, while Perseverance is the first spacecraft to successfully do so.

• Viking 1 and 2 were the first robotic vehicles sent to Mars, while Perseverance is just the sixth fivewheeled bot to land on the planet.

Which of these statements BEST explains how Ingenuity will interact with Mars's atmosphere?

• Ingenuity will take photos of Mars's atmosphere from a ground perspective, but Mars's thin atmosphere will make these photos sharper than ones on Earth.

• Ingenuity will take photos of Mars's atmosphere by going high above the planet, but Mars's thin atmosphere might make it difficult to capture precise images.

• Mars has a thin atmosphere that could make achieving lift an effortless process for Ingenuity, which has blades that spin faster because Mars's atmosphere is very dense.

• Mars has a thin atmosphere that could make achieving lift more challenging for Ingenuity, which has accounted for this obstacle by being light and swift with large blades.