The US space agency Nasa has released an animation showing how its one-ton Perseverance rover will land on Mars on Feb. 18.
The robot is sent to a crater called Jezero, where it searches for evidence of a past life. But in order to practice this science, you must first touch it gently.
The sequence of maneuvers required to land on Mars is often referred to as the “seven minutes of terror” – and with good reason.
So much has to go right in a frighteningly short time or the upcoming mission will dig a very large and very expensive new hole in the Red Planet.
Moreover, it is all autonomous.
With a distance on the day of 209 million km (130 million miles) between Earth and Mars, every moment and every movement you see in the animation has to be controlled by onboard computers.
It starts more than 100 km above Mars, where the Perseverance rover will encounter the first fragments of atmosphere.
At this point, the vehicle, in its protective capsule, is traveling at a speed of 20,000 km / h (12,000 mph).
In just over 400 seconds, the descent system must reduce this speed to less than 1 m / s at the surface.
Most of the work is done by a heat shield.
As the capsule dives deeper into the air of Mars, it becomes super hot at over 1000 ° C – but at the same time, the drag slows the fall dramatically.
By the time the supersonic parachute is deployed from the rear of the capsule, the speed has already dropped to 1,200 km / h.
Perseverance will steer the 21.5-foot-wide parachute for just over a minute, further scrubbing that boarding speed.
However, the most complex stages are yet to come.
At an altitude of 2 km, moving at 100 m / s, the Perseverance rover and its “Skycrane” separate from the backshell and fall away.
Eight missiles then detonate on the cradle to bring the rover to a floating position just above the surface. Nylon cords are used to lower the multi-billion dollar wheeled vehicle to the ground.
But it is not quite that yet.
When Persistence feels contact, it must immediately cut the cables or else it will be dragged behind the crane as the crib flies away to remove itself from a safe distance.
The sequence looks similar to what was used to put Nasa’s last rover, Curiosity, on the surface of Mars 12 years ago. However, the navigation tools have been improved to bring Perseverance into an even more precisely defined landing zone.
Landing is expected in the late afternoon, local time, on Mars – just before 21:00 GMT on Earth.
It is worth remembering that on the day of landing, it takes about 700 seconds for a radio signal to reach Earth from Mars.
This means that when Nasa receives the message from Perseverance that it has reached the top of the atmosphere, the mission will be dead or alive on the planet’s surface for several minutes.
The robot records its descent on camera and with microphones. The media files will be returned to Earth after landing – assuming persistence survives.
Read our guides to persistence (aka the Mars 2020 mission) – where it’s going and what it’s going to do.
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