Seven minutes of daunting descent to the red planet are in the not-too-distant future for the agency’s Mars 2020 mission.
NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover Perseverance mission is just 22 days from landing on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft has about 41.2 million kilometers (25.6 million miles) left on its 470.8 million-kilometer (292.5 million-mile) journey and currently closes that distance at 2.5 kilometers per second (1.6 miles per second). Once at the top of the red planet’s atmosphere, seven minutes of action-packed descents await you, with temperatures equivalent to the Sun’s surface, supersonic parachute inflation, and the first autonomous guided landing on Mars.
Only then can the rover, the largest, heaviest, cleanest, and most sophisticated six-wheeled robotic geologist ever launched into space, search Jezero Crater to find signs of ancient life and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth. Earth.
“NASA has been exploring Mars since Mariner 4 flew over it in July 1965, with two more flybys, seven successful orbits and eight landers since then,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of mission management. NASA scientist at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “Perseverance, which was built on the collective knowledge gained from these pioneers, has the opportunity not only to expand our knowledge of the red planet, but to investigate one of the most important and exciting questions of humanity on the origin of life, both on Earth and on other planets. “
Jezero Crater is the perfect place to look for signs of ancient microbial life. Billions of years ago, the now dry 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) bone basin was home to a river delta and an active-forming lake filled with water. The rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) that the perseverance sample system of Perseverance collects from Jezero could help answer fundamental questions about the existence of life beyond Earth. Two future missions currently being planned by NASA, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), will work together to bring the samples to Earth, where they will be subjected to in-depth analysis by scientists from everyone using equipment too big and complex to send to the red planet.
“Perseverance’s sophisticated scientific instruments will not only help research fossilized microbial life, but will also expand our knowledge of Martian geology and its past, present, and future,” said Ken Farley, Mars project scientist. 2020, from Caltech to Pasadena, California. “Our scientific team has been busy planning the best way to work with what we hope will be a cutting-edge data mesh. That’s the kind of ‘problem’ we look forward to.”
Future technology test
While most of Perseverance’s seven scientific instruments are geared toward learning more about the planet’s geology and astrobiology, the mission also includes technologies more focused on future exploration of Mars. MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), a car battery-sized device in the rover’s chassis, is designed to demonstrate that it is possible to convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen. Future applications of the technology could produce the large amounts of oxygen that would be needed as astronauts would rely on rocket fuel to return to Earth, and of course, oxygen could also be used to breathe.
The terrain-related navigation system helps the rover avoid hazards. The MEDLI2 sensor set (the Mars 2 entry, descent, and landing instrument) collects data during the journey through the Martian atmosphere. Together, the systems will help engineers design future human missions that can land more safely and with larger payloads in other worlds.
Another technological demonstration, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, is tied to the rover’s belly. Between 30 and 90 days of the rover’s mission, Ingenuity will be deployed to attempt the first experimental flight test on another planet. If this initial flight is successful, the wit will fly up to four times more. The data acquired during these tests will help the next generation of Mars helicopters provide an aerial dimension to Mars exploration.
Preparing for the red planet
Like people around the world, members of the Mars 2020 team have had to make significant changes to their approach to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. While most team members have done their work through telecommuting, some tasks have required a face-to-face presence at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built the engine for the agency and manages the mission. . Such was the case last week when the team that will be on the console at JPL during the landing went through a full three-day simulation adapted to the COVID of the next landing on Mars on 18 February.
“Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: landing on Mars is hard to do,” John McNamee, project manager for the March 2020 Perseverance rover mission at JPL, said. “But the women and men of this team are the best in the world for what they do. When our spacecraft reaches the top of Mars’ atmosphere at about three and a half kilometers per second, we will be ready.
There is less than a month of dark, unforgivable interplanetary space left before landing. NASA Television and the agency’s website will broadcast the event live from JPL starting at 11:15 am PST (2:15 pm EST).
Click anywhere in the image to interact with it. This view allows you to follow each stage of the heartbreaking entry, descent and landing. You can find out what the spacecraft will experience and how it was designed to respond in order to stay current during its landing on February 18, 2021. See the full experience. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Learn more about the mission
A key goal of Perseverance’s mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s past geology and climate, pave the way for human exploration of the red planet, and be the first mission to collect and hide Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent missions, which NASA is currently considering in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the red planet. With the charge of returning astronauts to the Moon in 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon in 2028 through NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans.
JPL, which is managed by NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and managed the operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more information on perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
nasa.gov/perseverance
For more information on NASA missions to Mars, go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/mars
News media contacts
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-393-9011
[email protected]
Gray Tombstone / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501
[email protected] / [email protected]