NASA’s subsequent Mars rover is prepared for probably the most exact touchdown but – what is the level?
From NASA
The aeroshell with NASA’s Perseverance Rover leads to the surface of Mars as it descends through the atmosphere in this illustration. Hundreds of critical events must be executed perfectly and precisely in time for the rover to land safely on Mars on February 18, 2021. Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech full screen and caption
What to Expect when the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover arrives on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021.
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is just days away from attempting to land the agency’s fifth rover on the Red Planet. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the mission is administered, have confirmed the spacecraft is healthy and is expected to land in Jezero Crater at around 3:55 p.m. EST on February 18, 2021.
“Persistence is NASA’s most ambitious Mars rover mission to date, scientifically focused on finding out whether there has ever been life on Mars in the past,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, assistant administrator of the Directorate for Scientific Missions at NASA- Headquarters in Washington. “To answer that question, the landing team has their hands full to get us to Jezero Crater – the most challenging Martian terrain ever selected for a landing.”
Jezero is a basin that scientists believe an ancient river flowed into a lake and deposited sediment in the shape of a fan known as the delta. Scientists believe the environment here likely preserved signs of life that took hold billions of years ago – but Jezero also has sheer cliffs, sand dunes, and boulder fields. Landing on Mars is difficult – only about 50% of all previous attempts to land on Mars have been successful – and these geological features make it even more difficult. The Perseverance team builds on lessons from previous touchdowns and uses new technologies with which the spaceship can aim more precisely at its landing site and avoid dangers autonomously.
“The Perseverance team is putting the finishing touches to the complex choreography required to land in the Jezero Crater,” said Jennifer Trosper, assistant project manager for the mission at JPL. “A Mars landing is not guaranteed, but we have prepared a decade to put the wheels of this rover on the Martian surface and get to work.
All landings on Mars are difficult, but NASA’s Perseverance rover is attempting to touch down in the toughest terrain on Mars ever aimed. Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech
You can catch the drama of Perseverance’s Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) – the riskiest part of the rover’s mission that some engineers call “Seven Minutes of Terror” – live on NASA television. Commentary begins on February 18 at 2:15 p.m. EST (11:15 a.m. PST). Engineers expect to be notified of important landing milestones at the estimated times below. (Because of the distance that signals must travel from Mars to Earth, these events actually happen 11 minutes, 22 seconds earlier on Mars than stated here.)
– – Cruise separation: The portion of the spacecraft that has flown through space in the past six and a half months of endurance – with NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on its belly – will separate from the entry capsule around 3:38 p.m. EST (12:38 p.m. PST).
– – Atmospheric entry: The spaceship is expected to reach the top of the Martian atmosphere and move at a speed of 19,500 km / h at 3:48 p.m. EST (12:48 p.m. PST).
– – Tip heating: The friction from the atmosphere heats the floor of the spacecraft at 3:49 p.m. EST (12:49 p.m. PST) to temperatures as high as about 2,300 degrees Celsius.
– – Parachute provision: The spaceship will deploy its parachute at supersonic speeds at approximately 3:52 p.m. EST (12:52 p.m. PST). The exact deployment time is based on the new Range Trigger technology, which improves the precision of the spacecraft’s ability to hit a landing target.
– – Heat shield separation: The protective floor of the entry capsule loosens approx. 20 seconds after the parachute is deployed. This allows the rover to use radar to determine how far from the ground it is and use its Terrain Relative Navigation technology to find a safe landing spot.
– – Separation of the rear shell: The rear half of the entry pod, attached to the parachute, separates from the rover and its “jetpack” (known as the descent stage) at 3:54 p.m. EST (12:54 p.m. PST). The jetpack uses retro sockets to slow down and fly to the landing pad.
– – Landing: The descent stage of the spacecraft using the sky crane maneuver lowers the rover to the surface on nylon straps. The rover is expected to touch down on the surface of Mars at around 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST) at human walking speed (approximately 2.7 km / h).
A variety of factors can affect the exact timing of the milestones listed above, including the characteristics of the Martian atmosphere, which are difficult to predict before the spaceship actually flies through.
Mission controllers may also not be able to confirm these milestones at the times indicated above because communication in space is complex. The flow of detailed engineering data (called telemetry) in near real time relies on a new type of relay functionality added to NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) last year. Engineers expect additional data to return to Earth directly via NASA’s Deep Space Network and two other terrestrial antennas until just before touchdown.
It is important to note that the rover can land safely on Mars without communication with Earth: endurance has preprogrammed landing instructions and considerable autonomy. Additional communication passes are planned in the hours and days after the landing event.
Once on the surface, one of Perseverance’s first activities is to take pictures of his new home and transmit them back to earth. In the days that follow, engineers will also check the rover’s condition and deploy the remote sensing mast (also known as the “head”) to allow it to take more pictures. It will then take the Perseverance team more than a month to thoroughly inspect the rover and load new flight software in preparation for their search for the old life on Mars. During the same period of time, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team will ensure that its small but powerful robot is prepared for the first attempt at a controlled, motor-driven aerodynamic flight on another planet.
“The Ingenuity team will be on the edge of our seats with the Perseverance team on landing day,” said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at JPL. “We can’t wait for the rover and helicopter to be safely on the surface of Mars and ready to go.”
More about the Perseverance Mission
A key objective of Perseverance’s mission to Mars is astrobiology, including finding signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the geology and the past climate of the planet, pave the way for human exploration of the red planet and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rocks and sediment for later return to Earth.
Subsequent NASA missions would, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), send spaceships 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 NASA initiative that includes missions to the moon in preparation for human exploration of the red planet. NASA will establish a sustainable human presence on and around the moon through NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology demonstration for NASA.
The press kit for the landing of Perseverance can be found at:
go.nasa.gov/perseverance-landing-press-kit
A press kit for Ingenuity can be found at:
go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit
4.8
5
be right
Item rating
Like this:
Loading…
Comments are closed.