- NASA’s Mars 2020 mission closes the landing date, which is expected to be in a few weeks.
- The mission, which includes the Perseverance rover and the Mars Ingenuity helicopter, depends on a successful landing that is currently out of the hands of NASA.
- The landing sequence is mostly automated, so NASA engineers can do little but sit back and wait for the best.
When NASA launched its mission in March 2020 last year, it was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. The mission, which has been traveling through space in recent months, is scheduled to reach the Martian surface on February 18 and NASA counts the seconds until this touchdown occurs.
One of the biggest obstacles that still exists between NASA and a successful Mars 2020 mission is the landing of the rover’s own capsule. The so-called “seven minutes of terror” that NASA often talks about when landing is essentially a seven-minute window where the spacecraft will begin its descent and, if all goes as planned, will deliver the most technologically advanced machine. never built for space exploration on the planet’s surface.
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In a new blog post, NASA offers an insight into where the mission is located and the possible pitfalls in its path:
The spacecraft has about 41.2 million kilometers (25.6 million miles) left in its 470.8 million kilometer (292.5 million miles) journey and is currently closing 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.
Due to the distance between Mars and Earth, control of the spacecraft in real time cannot be controlled. The orders would take minutes to reach their destination, so it is up to the spacecraft to consider any variables that may threaten the descent and landing.
If the spacecraft succeeds and the landing fires smoothly, the potential for new discoveries on Mars is enormous. The Perseverance rover is the most advanced piece of hardware ever sent to Mars and will be able to tell scientists things about the red planet that have never been studied in such a way before.
“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, a Caltech scientist. working on the Mars 2020 mission.a statement. “Our scientific team has been busy planning the best way to work with what we hope will be a cutting-edge data firewall. This is the kind of “problem” we look forward to. “
We can’t wait to see what happens.
Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games over the past decade, covering breaking news and trends in VR, portable devices, smartphones and future technology. Most recently, Mike worked as a technical editor at The Daily Dot and has appeared on USA Today, Time.com and countless other web and print outlets. His love of reporting is only second to his gambling addiction.