Seven minutes of descending offspring to the Red Planet in the near future for the organization’s Mars 2020 mission.
NASA’s Perseverance rover mission 2020 NASA is just 22 days from landing on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft has approximately 25.6 million miles (41.2 million kilometers) remaining on its 292.5-million-mile (470.8-million-kilometer) orbit and is currently closing at 1.6 miles per second. (2.5 kilometers per second). Once at the top of the Red Planet atmosphere, seven minutes of descent wait – complete with temperatures equal to the surface of the sun, supersonic parachute inflation, and the first autonomous guided tour of Mars.
Only then can the rover – the largest, heaviest, cleanest, and most exciting six-wheeled robotic geologist ever sent into space – search Jezero Crater for signs of ancient life and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth.
“NASA has been exploring Mars since Mariner made 4 flyby in July 1965, with two additional flybys, seven successful orbiters, and eight orbiters since then,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for Steering Group NASA Science Mission at the group’s headquarters in Washington. . “Perseverance, built on the collective knowledge gathered from such trailblazers, has the potential to not only broaden our knowledge of the Red Planet, but one of the most important and interesting issues that humanity is about the origin of life on both Earth. and also on other planets. ”
Jezero Crater is the perfect place to look for signs of old microbial life. Billions of years ago, the 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) now-bone-dry basin was home to an actively forming river delta and a water-filled lake. The rock and regolith (rock and broken dust) that the Perseverance Sustainability Sampling System collects from Jezero could help answer basic questions about living outside the Earth. Two future missions currently in the design stages with NASA, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), will work together to bring the samples back to Earth, where them through in-depth study by scientists around the world using far too large a device. and complex to send to the Red Planet.
“Perseverance’s solemn science instruments will not only help discover fossil microbial life, but will also expand our knowledge of Martian geology and the past, present and future. future, ”said Ken Farley, project scientist for Mars 2020, from Caltech in Pasadena, California. “Our science team has been busy designing the best way to work with what we expect to be a fiery source of advanced data. That’s the kind of ‘problem’ we’re looking forward to. ”
Future Tech Test
While most of Perseverance’s seven science instruments are aimed at learning more about the geology and astrobiology of the planet, the mission also carries technologies with a greater focus on the study of Mars in the future. MOXIE (In-Situ Mars Oxygen Utility Test), a car battery-sized device in the rover’s chassis, is designed to demonstrate the ability to convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen. The future use of the technology could reduce the amount of oxygen required as part of the rocket fuel astronauts to return to Earth, and, of course, the oxygen could be used for respiration. drawn as well.
The land-based navigation system helps the rover to avoid hazards. MEDLI2 (the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 sensory series) collects data during the journey through the Martian atmosphere. Together the systems will help engineers plan future human missions that can land more safely and with a greater payload on another world.
Another technology display, the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, is attached to the rover’s belly. Between 30 and 90 days into the rover’s mission, Ingenuity will be used to attempt the first experimental flight test on another planet. If that first flight is successful, Ingenuity will fly up to four more flights. The data obtained through these experiments will help the next generation of Mars helicopters give Mars exploration an aerial feature.
Getting ready for the red planet
Like people around the world, members of the Mars 2020 team need to make major changes to their approach to working in the COVID-19 pandemic. While most team members have accomplished their work through teleworking, some activities have required personal attendance at NASA’s Jet Dedication Laboratory, which built the rover for the group. and who governs the mission. That was the case last week when the team that will be on JPL’s console at the time of landing went through a three-day full-time simulation made up of COVID’s arrival. landed on February 18th.
“Don’t let anyone tell you any differently – it’s hard to land on Mars,” said John McNamee, project manager for JPL’s Perseverance Mars 2020 rover mission. “But the women and men on this team are the best in the world at what they do. When our spacecraft hits the top of the Mars atmosphere at about three and a half miles per second, we are ready. ”
There is still less than a month of dark, ruthless interplanetary space before it lands. NASA Television and the agency’s website will broadcast live of the event from JPL starting at 11:15 am PST (2:15 pm EST).
Click anywhere on the icon to interact with it. This view allows you to follow all stages of the harrowing, descent and landing sequence. You can find out what the spacecraft is getting and how it is engineered to respond to stay on course when it arrives on February 18, 2021. Check out the full experience. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
More about the mission
The main goal of the Perseverance mission on Mars is astrobiology, including finding traces of microbial old life. The rover will mark the geology of the planet and the climate of the past, pave the way for human study of the Red Planet, and will be the first mission to collect Martian rock and regolith and accumulate.
Subsequent missions, currently being considered by NASA in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface. and bring them back to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a means of preparing for a human study of the Red Planet. With responsibility for returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a stable human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA ‘s Artemis lunar exploration plans.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, and manages the operation of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Sustainability:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
nasa.gov/perseverance
For more information on NASA missions to Mars, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/mars
Contact news media
DC Agle
Jet Dedication Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
[email protected]
Gray Hautaluoma / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501
[email protected]/[email protected]