Currently traversed through space, less than 25 million miles away from its destination, NASA’s Perseverance rover will soon land the most difficult landing ever attempted on Mars, before he began to search for an old life.
When he arrives on 18 February, Sustainability into the atmosphere of Mars at over 12,000 miles per hour, climbing across the Martian sky like a meteor for seven minutes biting nails before finally sitting down in the Jezero Crater, a site that is Curiosity rover it was not technically possible to arrive.
NASA Scientists Call It The »seven minutes of horror. “
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The rover must survive both intense heat that resembles the surface of the sun and sway as it descends, while also trying to land in the right place. A parachute 70 feet in diameter will help make it slower, while trying to find its way to the pit.
Then, “skycrane,” which was also used by Curiosity, perseverance allows the surface to lower itself. When the rover finally arrives, it rubs on its wheels at a slower speed than humans walk.
“I don’t think I’m adding to the reality when I say that entry, rescue and landing (EDL) is the most critical and dangerous part of the mission,” said EDL director Allen Chen. this week at a press conference. “Success is never guaranteed, and that is especially true when we try to build the largest, heaviest and most complex rover. we are never to the most dangerous site we have ever tried. ”
And perseverance has to do this on its own. It takes radio signals more than 11 minutes to get back to Earth, so the entire EDL will be done without the help of mission control.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
NASA chose the Crater Jezero as the landing site as scientists believe, based on orbital images of the area, that it was once filled with water, home to an ancient river delta. The water is long gone, but deposits in a lake bed make the crater a great place to look for signs of old life.
The crater is filled with steep cliffs, sand, boulders and impact pits, all of which make access to land more difficult. When permanence rubs, it must do so near the remnants of the delta, where traces of an organism may have settled.
“Jezero Crater is a great place, an elegant place for science. But when I look at it from a landing perspective, I see danger,” Chen said. “It’s a big challenge.”
An rover Perseverance, a launched in July last year, is the largest vehicle NASA has ever attempted to land on Mars, weighing over a metric ton and carrying 50% more science and technology than the Curiosity, which landed in 2012. It will help two new terrain technologies Stability safely – a stimulus field, which allows the rover to decide when the parachute should be used, and a relative terrain navigation, which essentially gives the rover’s eyes and map, to check it to make sure it is lying in the right place.
“If it wasn’t for field address and relevant land address, we just couldn’t go to Jezero,” Chen said.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The pandemic of coronavirus has only brought to fruition.
“We had hoped that the situation in our world regarding COVID would have improved since its launch. No, and that has meant that we have to be flexible and adapt to keep working. safely and effectively, ”said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Steering Group. “Whatever has happened because of COVID, it is sustainable innovation, commitment and above all the unity of this team that has allowed work on the Sustainability rover to continue in a safe manner. “
Perseverance carries a ton of cool new technology, including a a tiny helicopter called Ingenuity and the instruments necessary to collect samples for future study in Earth. For the first time, we will also be able to see and hear what it is like to land on another planet, thanks to a new camera and microphone system.
These new and more detailed EDL technologies will help with capability human study of the red planet in the future, scientists said.
NASA will be streaming live the historic event on its website on Feb. 18, starting at 2:15 pm ET.