The problem, the agency says, was triggered when parts of the spacecraft became too cold in the Earth's shadow
NASA’s Perseverance rover is on its way to Mars and on Feb. 18, 2021, it is scheduled to land on the red planet’s Jezero Crater. Right now though, it’s been put into ‘safe mode,’ with all but the essential systems of the spacecraft shut down, after it ran into technical trouble after launch.
Safe mode can only be turned off by new commands from mission control, but as of now NASA says it isn’t too worried. The problem, the agency says, was triggered when parts of the spacecraft became too cold in the Earth’s shadow, and safe mode kicked in.
The craft is now said to have returned to its regular temperature, but safe mode has affected communications between the spacecraft and ground control, Business Insider reports. Via NASA’s Deep Space Network, the largest scientific telecommunications network in the world, the rover sent out a signal at 9:15 a.m. EST but NASA did not receive it until 11:30 a.m.
“All temperatures are now nominal and the spacecraft is out of Earth’s shadow,” was the message it sent, according to a NASA press release.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover vehicle takes off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2020.NASA/Joel Kowsky/Handout via REUTERS
Technical issues aside, NASA hopes the Mars rover will be able to find signs of past microscopic life on the planet, as well as study its geology in preparation for future robotic — and perhaps even human — expeditions.
“Jezero Crater is the perfect place to search for signs of ancient life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in a press release.
“Perseverance is going to make discoveries that cause us to rethink our questions about what Mars was like and how we understand it today. As our instruments investigate rocks along an ancient lake bottom and select samples to return to Earth, we may very well be reaching back in time to get the information scientists need to say that life has existed elsewhere in the universe.”
Among the many high-tech tools on board the Perseverance, the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, is designed to prove that it is in fact possible to convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen.
Also attached to the spacecraft’s belly is the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, perhaps the first helicopter to fly on any planet other than the Earth. Over 31 Earth days, the helicopter will undertake up to five flights on Mars.
The Perseverance forms part of NASA’s Moon to Mars mission, which aims to have the first woman (and the next man) on the moon by 2024.
This was the third launch from Earth to Mars this month, following probes sent by the United Arab Emirates and China.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence wrote on Twitter: “Today is a great day for American leadership in space!”
HELICOPTER INGENUITY
Aboard Perseverance is a four-pound (1.8 kg) autonomous helicopter named Ingenuity due to test powered flight on Mars. The thin Martian atmosphere – 99% less dense than Earth’s – poses a challenge to Ingenuity, which was designed to be light, with rotor blades that are larger and spin more quickly than needed for a helicopter of its mass on Earth.
Since the first Mars rover Sojourner landed in 1997, NASA has sent three others – Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity – that have explored the geology of Martian plains and detected signs of past water formations. NASA also has successfully sent five landers: Viking 1 and 2, Pathfinder, Phoenix and InSight.
The United States plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s under a program that envisions using a return to the moon as a testing platform for human missions before making the more ambitious crewed Martian voyage.
Perseverance will conduct an experiment to convert elements of the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into propellant for future rockets launching off the Martian surface, or to produce breathable oxygen for future astronauts. Perseverance also will collect and store rock and soil samples intended to be returned to Earth in the future.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)
The problem, the agency says, was triggered when parts of the spacecraft became too cold in the Earth's shadow
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover vehicle lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2020. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
NASA’s Perseverance rover is on its way to Mars and on Feb. 18, 2021, it is scheduled to land on the red planet’s Jezero Crater. Right now though, it’s been put into ‘safe mode,’ with all but the essential systems of the spacecraft shut down, after it ran into technical trouble after launch.
Safe mode can only be turned off by new commands from mission control, but as of now NASA says it isn’t too worried. The problem, the agency says, was triggered when parts of the spacecraft became too cold in the Earth’s shadow, and safe mode kicked in.
The craft is now said to have returned to its regular temperature, but safe mode has affected communications between the spacecraft and ground control, Business Insider reports. Via NASA’s Deep Space Network, the largest scientific telecommunications network in the world, the rover sent out a signal at 9:15 a.m. EST but NASA did not receive it until 11:30 a.m.
“All temperatures are now nominal and the spacecraft is out of Earth’s shadow,” was the message it sent, according to a NASA press release.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover vehicle takes off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2020.NASA/Joel Kowsky/Handout via REUTERS
Technical issues aside, NASA hopes the Mars rover will be able to find signs of past microscopic life on the planet, as well as study its geology in preparation for future robotic — and perhaps even human — expeditions.
“Jezero Crater is the perfect place to search for signs of ancient life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in a press release.
“Perseverance is going to make discoveries that cause us to rethink our questions about what Mars was like and how we understand it today. As our instruments investigate rocks along an ancient lake bottom and select samples to return to Earth, we may very well be reaching back in time to get the information scientists need to say that life has existed elsewhere in the universe.”
Among the many high-tech tools on board the Perseverance, the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, is designed to prove that it is in fact possible to convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen.
Also attached to the spacecraft’s belly is the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, perhaps the first helicopter to fly on any planet other than the Earth. Over 31 Earth days, the helicopter will undertake up to five flights on Mars.
The Perseverance forms part of NASA’s Moon to Mars mission, which aims to have the first woman (and the next man) on the moon by 2024.
Today in history: July 31 madison.com
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Elon Musk’s hopes for Starship to reach orbit before this spring didn’t quite pan out, but a recent test firing has the SpaceX CEO expecting to see the company’s new vehicle take flight shortly. On Thursday he tweeted that its new SN5 build completed a full duration static fire, and said a 150m test hop will happen “soon.” Of course, ten days ago he said there would be a flight attempt within a week, but they are making progress.
Starship SN5 just completed full duration static fire. 150m hop soon.
Last August we saw SpaceX’s Starhopper test vehicle complete a 150m Raptor-powered “bounce” and sooner or later the actual Starship will make a similar test flight. The company has continued to iterate on its design and pressure test prototypes — we remember SN4’s end — as it moves closer to actual flight. If there’s any information on a webcast of the event, we’ll let you know. Even with the Crew Dragon scheduled for a return this weekend, SpaceX’s priority is the Starship project.
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After scrubbing several attempts for weather concerns, technical issues, and even a range violation due to a nearby boat, SpaceX succeeded in static-fire testing the latest prototype of its Starship vehicle on Thursday.
At 3:02pm local time in South Texas, the single Raptor engine attached to the Starship prototype dubbed Serial Number 5, or SN5, roared to life for a few seconds. In video shared by NASASpaceflight.com, the test appeared to be nominal, evidently providing SpaceX engineers with the confidence they need in the latest iteration of Starship.
Starship SN5 just completed full duration static fire. 150m hop soon.
Shortly after the test, the founder and chief engineer of SpaceX, Elon Musk, confirmed that the static fire meant the company now plans to move forward with a short test flight of the vehicle. Based upon a notification from the US Federal Aviation Administration, this 150-meter flight test could take place as soon as Sunday, with a launch window opening at 8am local time (13:00 UTC).
This would be the first flight test of Starship hardware since a stubby prototype—Starhopper—soared to 150 meters in late August 2019. That test, in which a single Raptor engine powered the vehicle upward and laterally for about 100 meters before landing, was successful in demonstrating thrust and vector control of the methane-fueled engine.
Since then, SpaceX has built several full-scale prototypes, losing them to a varying array of fueling and pressure tests. With an iterative test program like the one SpaceX is using to develop Starship, the company has chosen to accept some reasonable level of risk in order to move fast.
And SpaceX has been doing just that. Over the last eight months, it has built an impressive factory in South Texas and has begun to churn out Starship prototypes. Its engineers and technicians have reduced the time to build a single Starship down from months to weeks, bringing the company closer to Musk's ultimate goal of mass-producing the large, interplanetary spaceships that may one day allow humans to settle Mars.
Even as SpaceX has been putting SN5 through its paces on the test stand, there are bits of hardware at the site for several future prototypes, including models that will use a new, tougher steel alloy. Ultimately, SpaceX plans to hop one of these latter prototypes to about 20km, perhaps later this year.
After that point, the company is expected to focus on completing the launch system's first stage, a rocket named "Super Heavy" that will be used to loft Starship into low Earth orbit.
On Saturday, August 1, NASA and SpaceX plan to complete their historic Demo-2 mission, the first crewed test flight of the new Crew Dragon capsule which will ferry astronauts between Earth and the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft will undock from the station where it has been since its arrival on May 31 and travel back to Earth with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard.
We’ve got all the details on what to expect from the return flight and how to watch the event live online.
The Crew Dragon mission so far
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen in this false color infrared exposure as it is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA/Bill Ingalls
At the end of May, the Crew Dragon capsule with astronauts Behnken and Hurley aboard was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a smooth and uneventful 19-hour journey, the astronauts arrived safely at the International Space Station with the capsule in good condition.
The astronauts then spent two months on board the ISS, where they assisted the crew with science operations as well as checking on the health of the Crew Dragon. Now NASA and SpaceX are both satisfied that the Crew Dragon capsule has performed as required and has not experienced any issues during launch or while being docked, they are ready for the return leg of the journey to complete this test flight mission.
What happens next
The International Space Station’s two newest crew members, NASA astronauts (from left) Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, are pictured having just entered the orbiting lab shortly after arriving aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.NASA
On the day of the return flight, Saturday, August 1, Behnken and Hurley will say farewell to their ISS colleagues and proceed from the space station back into the Crew Dragon capsule. The capsule will then carefully undock from the station and maneuver to a safe distance.
The capsule will execute four engine burns to point back toward Earth and begin the return journey. This journey takes between six and 30 hours, depending on exactly when departure occurs. This large difference is due to the fact the ISS moves around the Earth so its position relative to the landing zone varies throughout the day.
Once the capsule is approaching Earth’s atmosphere, it will jettison its trunk, or the cylinder in which it sits, which will then burn up in the atmosphere. The small capsule will continue on and enter Earth’s atmosphere traveling at around 17,500 miles per hour, at which speeds friction will cause it to experience temperatures of up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once it is moving through the atmosphere, the capsule will deploy two sets of parachutes to slow its descent before it lands in the ocean. The first set deploys at an altitude of 18,000 feet and the second set at 6,000 feet, slowing the Crew Dragon from 350 mph to 119 mph to a safe landing speed.
The capsule will splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. There are seven potential splashdown sites, including those near to Pensacola, Tampa, Tallahassee, Panama City, Cape Canaveral, Daytona, and Jacksonville. Which location will be used depends on exactly when the craft leaves the ISS and on the weather conditions at each location.
The crew members will then be retrieved by a team of SpaceX and NASA personnel using one of two recovery ships, the Go Searcher and the Go Navigator. They’ll be taken for a medical assessment to check they’re fit and well, then they’ll travel back to dry land where they’ll board a plane which will fly them to Ellington Field base in Houston.
How to watch NASA astronauts return on the Crew Dragon live
This artist’s concept shows a SpaceX Crew Dragon docking with the International Space Station.SpaceX
NASA TV will be showing full coverage of the return flight, including a farewell ceremony from the ISS for the astronauts, the undocking of the craft from the space station, and the splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. There will also be a post-splashdown news conference with NASA and SpaceX representatives to talk about how the return flight went, and after a couple of days of recovery time the astronauts traveling in the Crew Dragon, Behnken and Hurley, will talk about their experiences in a news conference.
On flight day, Saturday, August 1, coverage of the farewell ceremony begins at 6:10 a.m. PT/9:10 a.m. ET., followed by coverage of the undocking beginning at 2:15 p.m. PT/5:15 p.m. ET, with the actual undocking scheduled for 4:34 p.m. PT/7:34 p.m. ET.
The craft will travel back to Earth over Saturday night and Sunday morning, with splashdown scheduled for 11:42 p.m. PT/2:42 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 2. This will be followed by the post-splashdown news conference at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET.
You can watch all of these events via NASA TV, either by using the embedded video at the top of this page or by heading to NASA’s live TV page.
On Saturday, August 1, NASA and SpaceX plan to complete their historic Demo-2 mission, the first crewed test flight of the new Crew Dragon capsule which will ferry astronauts between Earth and the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft will undock from the station where it has been since its arrival on May 31 and travel back to Earth with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard.
We’ve got all the details on what to expect from the return flight and how to watch the event live online.
The Crew Dragon mission so far
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen in this false color infrared exposure as it is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA/Bill Ingalls
At the end of May, the Crew Dragon capsule with astronauts Behnken and Hurley aboard was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a smooth and uneventful 19-hour journey, the astronauts arrived safely at the International Space Station with the capsule in good condition.
The astronauts then spent three months on board the ISS, where they assisted the crew with science operations as well as checking on the health of the Crew Dragon. Now NASA and SpaceX are both satisfied that the Crew Dragon capsule has performed as required as has not experienced any issues during launch or while being docked, they are ready for the return leg of the journey to complete this test flight mission.
What happens next
The International Space Station’s two newest crew members, NASA astronauts (from left) Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, are pictured having just entered the orbiting lab shortly after arriving aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.NASA
On the day of the return flight, Saturday, August 1, Behnken and Hurley will say farewell to their ISS colleagues and proceed from the space station back into the Crew Dragon capsule. The capsule will then carefully undock from the station and maneuver to a safe distance.
The capsule will execute four engine burns to point back toward Earth and begin the return journey. This journey takes between six and 30 hours, depending on exactly when departure occurs. This large difference is due to the fact the ISS moves around the Earth so its position relative to the landing zone varies throughout the day.
Once the capsule is approaching Earth’s atmosphere, it will jettison its trunk, or the cylinder in which it sits, which will then burn up in the atmosphere. The small capsule will continue on and enter Earth’s atmosphere traveling at around 17,500 miles per hour, at which speeds friction will cause it to experience temperatures of up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once it is moving through the atmosphere, the capsule will deploy two sets of parachutes to slow its descent before it lands in the ocean. The first set deploys at an altitude of 18,000 feet and the second set at 6,000 feet, slowing the Crew Dragon from 350 mph to 119 mph to a safe landing speed.
The capsule will splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. There are seven potential splashdown sites, including those near to Pensacola, Tampa, Tallahassee, Panama City, Cape Canaveral, Daytona, and Jacksonville. Which location will be used depends on exactly when the craft leaves the ISS and on the weather conditions at each location.
The crew members will then be retrieved by a team of SpaceX and NASA personnel using one of two recovery ships, the Go Searcher and the Go Navigator. They’ll be taken for a medical assessment to check they’re fit and well, then they’ll travel back to dry land where they’ll board a plane which will fly them to Ellington Field base in Houston.
How to watch NASA astronauts return on the Crew Dragon live
This artist’s concept shows a SpaceX Crew Dragon docking with the International Space Station.SpaceX
NASA TV will be showing full coverage of the return flight, including a farewell ceremony from the ISS for the astronauts, the undocking of the craft from the space station, and the splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. There will also be a post-splashdown news conference with NASA and SpaceX representatives to talk about how the return flight went, and after a couple of days of recovery time the astronauts traveling in the Crew Dragon, Behnken and Hurley, will talk about their experiences in a news conference.
On flight day, Saturday, August 1, coverage of the farewell ceremony begins at 6:10 a.m. PT/9:10 a.m. ET., followed by coverage of the undocking beginning at 2:15 p.m. PT/5:15 p.m. ET, with the actual undocking scheduled for 4:34 p.m. PT/7:34 p.m. ET.
The craft will travel back to Earth over Saturday night and Sunday morning, with splashdown scheduled for 11:42 p.m. PT/2:42 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 2. This will be followed by the post-splashdown news conference at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET.
You can watch all of these events via NASA TV, either by using the embedded video at the top of this page or by heading to NASA’s live TV page.
NASA has once again sent what amounts to the ultimate driverless car to Mars. Perseverance, the rover previously known as Mars 2020, left Earth Thursday to become the successor robot to NASA's Curiosity, which has been roving the red planet since 2012.
This latest-generation planetary explorer comes from a long line of well-traveled bots with some big upgrades over its older sibling that should allow scientists to see, touch and -- for the first time ever -- hear Mars in new ways.
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Martian audio-visual club
An assortment of Mars rovers and orbiters have sent myriad views of the red planet home, but we've yet to actually open a microphone there to capture the sounds of our neighboring planet. Perseverance aims to finally change this by carrying a pair of mics that will pick up the audio of landing on the planet, as well as the ambient noise of another world and the whirring din of a rover at work.
"Hearing how the mast swivels, the wheels turn, or hearing how other instruments sound can also be an important engineering diagnostic tool," said Greg Delory, the CEO and co-founder of space hardware company Heliospace. He's an adviser to Perseverance's SuperCam microphone team.
SuperCam is the rover's new science instrument that blasts rock and other materials with a laser while its microphone records the subtle sounds made by different types of rock as they get zapped. The SuperCam mic will also be able to pick up the Martian wind and other sounds from the rover's environment.
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The other on-board mic is part of the entry, descent and landing system that includes full-color cameras to capture the whole thrilling ride down to the surface.
All together, Perseverance is loaded with 23 cameras, most of them color devices. It will be capable of capturing HD video and stereo 3D panoramas and of zooming in on a target the size of a house fly from over 100 yards (91 meters) away.
Save it for later
A key part of Perseverance's mission is to collect rock and gas samples from the Martian surface that will then be secured for possible later retrieval by a future mission.
A significant portion of the rover's belly is taken up by instruments for collecting and analyzing Martian geology.
"I can't wait for the time that these unique samples will one day return to Earth and be available for study by scientists around the world," planetary scientist Caroline Smith from the UK Natural History Museum said in a statement. Smith is working with NASA and the European Space Agency to plan how the samples will be curated upon their delivery to Earth.
The sample return mission is part of one of the larger goals for Perseverance -- looking for evidence of past life on Mars. Jezero Crater, where the rover will land, is thought to have once been home to a large body of water the size of Lake Tahoe, making it a prime spot for life in the distant past.
NASA
A flying sidekick
Perseverance will be fully grounded on Mars, but it's carrying something new and exciting: the first helicopter to ply the thin atmosphere of our neighboring planet.
Dubbed Ingenuity, the tiny chopper is stowed in the belly of the rover, to be expelled onto the surface for some flight tests. This should be very interesting since we've never flown on another planet and the atmosphere of Mars is very different from that of Earth.
Put another way, don't expect too much from this little space drone. But if it works, it could mean big ups (sorry) for how we explore other worlds in the future.
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Prepping for Elon and other human visitors
One of the stated goals of the Perseverance mission is to make key advances that will support the future arrival of actual people to become the first (or at least the most recent) Martians.
The rover is equipped with experiments like Moxie, the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, which will test a way to pull oxygen out of literal Martian thin air. It will also use instruments to look at how the ubiquitous dust in that air could impact human life support systems and other key technologies.
Still other experiments will look for subsurface water, study the Martian atmosphere, climate and weather, and assess their impact on potential human explorers.
Fancy new wheels and a stronger arm
Engineers took some lessons learned from Curiosity and the punishment delivered to it by sharp, pointy Martian rocks and applied them to beefing up the wheels on Perseverance. They're narrower, but have a bigger diameter and are made out of thicker aluminum. This, and all its new tools, make Perseverance heavier than its older sibling.
Wielding all those tools also requires a larger "hand" or turret on the end of its robotic arm. The arm extends 7 feet (2 meters), ending in the rotating 99-pound (45-kilogram) turret holding a scientific camera, chemical analyzers and rock drill. It's pretty much the ultimate power glove.
NASA Perseverance rover ready to explore the wilds of Mars
Curiosity had a similar setup, but the turret on Perseverance weighs 33 percent more because it has bigger instruments and a drill meant to cut into intact rock cores to collect samples for storage.
All in all, Perseverance is the most advanced robot to visit Mars yet, and if all goes well, it might be one of the last to make the trip alone without human companions.
Ingenuity is a tech demonstration, aiming to be the first vehicle to achieve powered-flight on another planet. Perseverance has a bigger, bolder mission -- on that could forever change our understanding of the cosmos. It will hunt for signs of past life on the red planet.
The dry, dusty Mars we know today was very different in the deep past. Humanity's latest rover is making a beeline for an area of Mars that was once home to a lake, a perfect place to look for signs of ancient microbes.
Since Sojourner in 1997, NASA has sent a succession of increasingly sophisticated wheeled explorers to Mars. Perseverance is the latest and greatest and in July 2020, it launched on an epic journey across space.
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On a mission
Perseverance will do much more than snap amazing images of Mars. These are some of the key mission objectives:
Look for signs of ancient microbial life.
Collect Martian rock and dust samples for later return to Earth.
Deliver an experimental helicopter.
Study the climate and geology of Mars.
Demonstrate technology for future Mars missions.
The mission is planned to last for at least one Mars year, which works out to about 687 days on Earth (it takes longer for Mars to go around the sun). However, NASA has a good track record with extending its robotic Mars missions. We can look to the long-lived Opportunity and Curiosity rovers as role models for this.
NASA Perseverance rover ready to explore the wilds of Mars
NASA performed extensive tests of the parachute system that will lower Perseverance to Mars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The rover's Mars arrival is set for Feb. 18, 2021. The landing process will include some of the most harrowing minutes of the entire mission.
Perseverance will get to try out a new method that NASA hopes will deliver it as close to its targeted landing site as possible. NASA calls this the "Range Trigger" technique and it's all about deploying the parachutes at exactly the right time.
"If the spacecraft were going to overshoot the landing target, the parachute would be deployed earlier," said NASA. "If it were going to fall short of the target, the parachute would be deployed later, after the spacecraft flew a little closer to its target."
Earth observers can look forward to an unprecedented view of the entry, descent and landing process. The mission is equipped with cameras and a microphone to capture all of the excitement and stress as NASA attempts to land Perseverance gently onto the surface of Mars.
Jezero Crater
This Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image shows the Jezero Crater delta region.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL
Jezero Crater is located just north of Mars' equator and was once home to a river delta. That history of water makes it a prime spot to look for signs of past microbial life. Sounds like the perfect landing site for a science laboratory on wheels.
"The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion-years-old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology," said NASA's Thomas Zurbuchen when the site was announced in 2018.
Vital statistics
The car-sized Perseverance rover looks fairly similar to its predecessor, Curiosity, but also represents quite a few technology advances since Curiosity was designed. Here are the numbers:
Length: 10 feet (3 meters) Weight: 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms) Wheels: Six aluminum wheels with titanium spokes Top speed: Just under 0.1-miles per hour (152 meters per hour)
Science instruments
The Perseverance rover is stocked with instruments that it will use to investigate the Jezero Crater on Mars.
NASA
Perseverance is loaded with seven instruments chosen to help it achieve its mission objectives. You can get the full rundown from NASA, but here are some highlights:
Mastcam-Z: The camera system mounted on the rover's mast is equivalent to eyes on a head. According to NASA, its main job is "to take high-definition video, panoramic color and 3D images of the Martian surface and features in the atmosphere with a zoom lens to magnify distant targets." The mastcam will be our main viewing window onto the Jezero Crater.
Moxie: The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment is one of the ways Perseverance is helping to prepare humans to go to Mars. This instrument is designed to make oxygen from the carbon-dioxide atmosphere. This capability will be necessary to help future human explorers breathe, but it would also help us make propellant for rockets right on site. That's a necessary step for bringing our Mars astronauts back to Earth after their missions.
SuperCam: When you put a camera, laser and spectrometers together, you get SuperCam, an instrument that will help look for organic compounds, a key part of the quest for signs of past microbial life. "It can identify the chemical and mineral makeup of targets as small as a pencil point from a distance of more than 20 feet (7 meters)," said NASA.
Sherloc: The "Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals" or Sherloc, as the instrument is affectionately known, will search for signs of life on the red planet. The instrument and its companion camera (nicknamed Watson) are capable of taking microscopic images of Mars and analyzing them. Equipped with a laser it can fire at the surface, Sherloc is able to measure chemicals present in the soil and rock using a technique known as spectroscopy.
Helicopter on board
The NASA Mars helicopter team attaches a piece to the flight model in early 2019.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
"Let's send a helicopter to Mars" might sound a little far-fetched, but NASA is doing it anyway. Ingenuity, a small helicopter designed to work in the challenging conditions on the red planet, is all tucked into the rover's belly where it will ride out the journey.
Ingenuity is a high-risk, high-reward technology demonstration. It will hang out under the rover for a few months until NASA finds a suitable spot to deploy it. Perseverance will drop it onto the Martian surface and then move away.
The helicopter will make the first attempt at powered flight on another planet. NASA hopes Ingenuity soars and becomes a model for a new way to investigate other worlds.
Check out this video for more on how this little chopper could change the way we approach space exploration.
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Joining its siblings
NASA currently has two machines operating on the surface of Mars, the stationary InSight lander and the Mars rover Curiosity. InSight is located in a region called Elysium Planitia, a large plains area. Curiosity is cruising around Gale Crater, a giant ditch with a massive mountain inside it. Perseverance will be scoping out a very different part of the planet as it continues NASA's legacy of Mars exploration.
The last time we had two functioning rovers on Mars was in 2018 when the Opportunity rover lost contact with home due to the impact of a global dust storm. Perseverance won't have the same issues as Opportunity. Like Curiosity, it uses a nuclear power source that doesn't require sunlight to keep it going.
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'Explore as one'
This plate holds the names of nearly 11 million people and carries a coded message.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Perseverance will be a long way from Earth, but it will carry poignant remembrances of its home planet. Over 10.9 million people signed up to have their names travel with the rover through NASA's Send Your Name to Mars public outreach program. The names are etched on small silicon chips that NASA installed on the rover on an aluminum plate underneath a protective shield.
These names and messages are a reminder that NASA's robotic explorers never truly travel alone. Perseverance is the culmination of years of effort from NASA, but it's also an emissary for humanity, an extension of our curiosity and sense of wonder and a little bit of Earth on Mars.
