Landing on Mars is difficult. So you want to watch tomorrow when Perseverance (formerly called Mars 2020) will hopefully become the first artificial object to land on the red planet since the Insight Mars lander in 2018. It will be the first rover since Curiosity landed in 2012. Because of the land in the Jezero crater, just north of Mars’ equator, Perseverance has a slew of scientific tools to collect soil samples and look for signs of ancient life. It is equipped with advanced audiovisual technology to let us see and hear – for the first time ever – what it’s like to enter another world. It’s getting exciting! NASA TV’s live coverage of the event begins tomorrow, Feb. 18, at 2:15 PM EST (7:15 PM UTC); Landing will occur at approximately 3:55 PM EST (20:55 UTC).
Where to watch: NASA TV, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion and THETA.TV.
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Innovative cameras and microphones on Perseverance will capture much of the crucial entry, descent and landing process. This process, also referred to by space technicians as seven minutes of terror, is considered by many to be the most critical and dangerous part of the mission.
According to NASA, engineers expect to be notified of important landing milestones at the estimated times below. Because of the distance the signals must travel from Mars to Earth, these events actually occur on Mars 11 minutes, 22 seconds earlier than what is listed below. Also, several factors can influence the precise timing of these milestones mentioned above, including properties of the Martian atmosphere that are difficult to predict until the spacecraft actually flies through it.
Cruise stage separation: The portion of the spacecraft that has persistently flown – with NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter attached to its abdomen – through space during the last 6 1/2 months will separate from the access capsule at approximately 3:38 PM EST ( 12:38 pm PST, 8:38 pm UTC).
– Atmospheric Entry: The spacecraft is expected to reach the top of the Martian atmosphere at a speed of approximately 12,100 mph (19,500 km / h) at 3:48 PM EST (12:48 PM PST, 8:48 PM UTC).
– Peak Heating: Friction from the atmosphere will warm the spacecraft’s bottom to temperatures as high as about 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,300 degrees Celsius) at 3:49 p.m. EST (12:49 p.m. PST, 8:49 PM UTC).
– Parachute Deployment: The spacecraft will deploy its parachute at supersonic speed at around 3:52 PM EST (12:52 PM PST, 8:52 PM UTC). 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 bottom of the entrance capsule will release approximately 20 seconds after deploying the parachute. This allows the rover to use a radar to determine how far it is from the ground and use its Terrain-Relative Navigation technology to find a safe landing site.
– Dorsal Shell Separation: The rear half of the access capsule attached to the parachute will move away from the rover and its “jetpack” at 3:54 PM EST (12:54 PM PST, 8:54 PM PST, 8:54 PM PST) (known as the descent phase) part 54 UTC). The jetpack uses retrorockets to slow down and fly to the landing site.
– Touchdown: The spacecraft’s descent staircase, using the overhead crane maneuver, will lower the rover to the surface with nylon cords. The rover is expected to land on the surface of Mars at a human walking speed (about 1.7 mph or 2.7 km / h) around 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST, 8:55 p.m. UTC).
The aeroshell with NASA’s Perseverance rover guides itself to the surface of Mars as it descends through the atmosphere in this illustration. Hundreds of critical events must be executed perfectly and just in time for the rover to land safely on Mars. Image via NASA / JPL-Caltech.
The rover will hit the atmosphere of Mars at a speed of nearly 12,000 miles per hour (19,000 km / h) and fly through the air with its protective heat shield helping it slow down. Then, at an altitude of about 1 mile (1.5 km), the descent module will fire its engines, while a new terrain-related navigation system kicks in to identify a safe landing site. Essentially, it will scan and analyze the terrain below, then match it with maps in its database and prepare for landing.
A 70-foot (21 m) diameter parachute will be deployed to further slow the craft, bringing the descent to a crawl, before the aerial crane begins its task of lowering the rover to the ground the rest of the way . The overhead crane is the same hover landing system used by Curiosity, and is a fully autonomous system designed to give rovers a smooth, soft landing (hopefully).
Design-wise, the rover is very similar to the Curiosity rover, which is currently located in Gale Crater, but it has a number of different scientific instruments. While Curiosity focuses on finding evidence of past habitability, which it has done, Perseverance looks for direct evidence of life itself. This will be the first mission since the Viking 1 and 2 landers in the late 1970s / early 1980s to do this.
Perseverance’s flashy new cameras will capture much of this entire process. A camera on the back of the spacecraft faces up. That will capture a picture of the parachutes deployed as they slow down. Then, beneath that is a downward-facing camera on the descent staircase, which will film its first touch with the ground on Mars. This technology provides us with the most detailed video and photo recordings of the landing on a neighboring world to date. Lori Glaze, chief of the Planetary Science Division at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told reporters:
We will be able to see ourselves landing on another planet for the first time.
However, there will be no livestream of the footage, as we are used to from events on the International Space Station and rocket launches from Earth. The reason for this is due to a delay in data transfer from Mars to Earth, which is slower than even old dial-up connections. But we can get a glimpse of Perseverance on the ground using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which can share with us at least low-resolution images shortly after landing. In addition, we will also have live feeds from the mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Images from the Curiosity landing have brought us some iconic images (enter Bobak FerdowsiOf course, coronavirus protocols will still be in effect at mission control, but even a pandemic is unlikely to dampen the celebration. Perseverance Deputy Project Manager Matt Wallace said:
I don’t think Covid will be able to stop us from jumping up and down and punching with the fist. You’re going to see a lot of happy people no matter what, once we get this thing safely on the surface.
Investigators in NASA-JPL’s main mission control in honor of the Curiosity landing in 2012. Image via NASA / Daily Mail.
So far there have been only eight successful landings on Mars: Viking 1 and Viking 2 (both 1976), Pathfinder (1997), Spirit and Opportunity (both 2004), Phoenix (2008), Curiosity (2012) and InSight (2018).
The Soviet Union is the only other country that has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars. That was in 1971 and 1973.
On the other hand, once they get there, Mars missions can take years, and robotic robbers from Earth have rolled around Mars for years. With the Perseverance mission, NASA will try something new for the first time; it will fly a small helicopter into the thin air of Mars. The helicopter is called Ingenuity. It will try to explore around the small planet and target points of interest for future Mars missions.
NASA chose Jezero Crater as the landing site for the Perseverance rover for a reason. Scientists believe the area was once flooded and was home to an ancient water river delta more than 3.5 billion years ago. River channels flowed over the crater wall, creating a lake with clay minerals from the area. Microbial life could have lived in the crater during one or more of these wet periods, and if so, signs of their remains may be found in bottom or coastal sediments. Scientists will study how the region formed and evolved, look for signs of past life, and collect samples of Mars rock and Earth that could preserve these signs. The landing site selection process involved members of the mission team and scientists from around the world, who carefully examined more than 60 candidate sites. But after a thorough five-year study of potential sites, each with their own unique features and appeal, Jezero climbed to the top.
In preparation for the Perseverance landing, NASA offers landing resources, ways to participate, social opportunities and more. Download posters, stickers, fact sheets, mission patches and more. Register for a virtual landing event, where you can connect with fellow space enthusiasts online and ask NASA experts your most burning questions. Get classes and activities for students, or even virtual passport stamps, all available from their website here.
NASA will use an “overhead crane” to gently lower persistence to the surface of Mars. Artist’s concept via NASA.
Bottom line, because of the land in the Jezero crater tomorrow, NASA’s Perseverance rover will bring scientific instruments to collect soil samples and look for signs of ancient life. It will also use audiovisual technology to show us and hear what it’s like to enter another world for the first time. How to watch live coverage of Perseverance’s landing.
Read more from CNET: NASA Mars Perseverance rover: What to Expect on Landing Day
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