What to expect when the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover arrives on the red planet on February 18, 2021.
With about 3.9 million kilometers left to travel in space, NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is a few days away from trying to land the agency’s fifth rover on the Red Planet. Engineers at NASA’s Southern California Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the mission is managed, have confirmed that the spacecraft is healthy and will reach Jezero Crater around 3:55 PM EST (12:55 pm PST) on February 18 . , 2021.
“Perseverance is NASA’s most ambitious Mars rover mission, scientifically focused on finding out if there has ever been life on Mars in the past,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate director of the Scientific Mission Directorate at NASA’s Washington headquarters. “To answer this question, the landing team will have their hands full reaching Jezero Crater – the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted for a landing.”
Jezero is a basin in which scientists believe that an ancient river flowed into a lake and deposited sediment in a fan shape known as a delta. Scientists believe that the environment here would have probably kept signs of any life that gained a foothold billions of years ago – but Jezero also has steep cliffs, sand dunes and boulder fields. Landing on Mars is difficult – only about 50% of all previous attempts to land on Mars have been successful – and these geological features make it even more so. The Perseverance team builds on lessons from previous touchdowns and uses new technologies that allow the spacecraft to target its landing site more precisely and avoid hazards on its own.
“The Perseverance team puts the finishing touches on the complex choreography needed to land in Jezero Crater,” said Jennifer Trosper, deputy project manager for the JPL mission. “Landing on Mars is not guaranteed, but we are preparing for a decade to put the wheels of this rover on the surface of Mars and get to work.”
You will be able to watch the drama of entering, landing and landing perseverance (EDL) – the most risky part of the rover’s mission that some engineers call “seven minutes of terror” – live on NASA TV. Commentary begins at 2:15 PM EST (11:15 AM PST) on February 18th. Engineers are expected to receive notification of key landing steps at the estimated times below. (Due to the distance that signals must travel from Mars to Earth, these events actually occur on Mars 11 minutes, 22 seconds earlier than mentioned here.)
– Separation of the cruise stage: The part of the spacecraft flying Perseverance – with NASA’s ingenious Mars helicopter attached to its belly – through space in the last six and a half months will separate from the entry capsule at approximately 3:38 pm EST (12:38 pm PST).
– Atmospheric inlet: The spacecraft is expected to reach the top of the Martian atmosphere traveling at a speed of approximately 19,500 km / h at 15:48 EST (12:48 PST).
– Maximum heating: Friction in the atmosphere will heat the spacecraft’s bottom to temperatures of up to about 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,300 degrees Celsius) at 3:49 pm EST (12:49 pm PST).
– Parachute implementation: The spacecraft will deploy its parachute at supersonic speed around 15:52 EST (12:52 pm PST). The exact deployment time is based on the new Range Trigger technology, which improves the accuracy of the ship’s ability to reach a landing target.
– Thermal shield separation: The protective bottom of the inlet capsule will come off approximately 20 seconds after the parachute is deployed. This allows the rover to use a radar to determine how far it is from the ground and use its ground-based navigation technology to find a safe landing place.
– Rear housing separation: The rear half of the inlet capsule that is attached to the parachute will separate from the rover and the “jetpack” (known as the descent stage) at 15:54 EST (12:54 pm PST). The jetpack will use retrorockets to slow down and fly to the landing site.
– Landing: The descent stage of the spacecraft, using the maneuver of the sky crane, will lower the rover to the surface on the nylon ties. The rover is expected to reach the surface of Mars at human walking speed (approximately 1.7 mph, or 2.7 km / h) around 3:55 pm EST (12:55 pm PST).
A variety of factors can affect the precise timing of the steps listed above, including properties of the Martian atmosphere that are difficult to predict until the spacecraft actually flies.
Mission controllers may also be unable to confirm these milestones at the times listed above due to the complexity of deep space communications. The flow of detailed technical data (called telemetry) in near real time is based on a new type of relay capability added last year to NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Engineers expect additional data to return to Earth directly through NASA’s deep space network and two other Earth-based antennas just before the touchdown.
It is important to note that the rover can land safely on Mars without communication with Earth: Perseverance has pre-programmed landing instructions and significant autonomy. Additional communication permits are planned in the hours and days following the landing event.
Once on the surface, one of the first activities of Perseverance will be to take pictures of his new home and send them back to Earth. In the coming days, engineers will also check the health of the rover and implement the remote sensing mast (also known as the “head”) so that it can take more photos. The Perseverance team will then take more than a month to thoroughly inspect the rover and upload new flight schedules to prepare for the search for ancient life on Mars. During the same period, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team will ensure that their small but powerful robot is ready for the first controlled aerodynamic flight attempt and powered on another planet.
“The ingenuity team will be at the edge of our seats with the perseverance team on the day of the landing,” said MiMi Aung, JPL’s ingenuity project manager. “We can’t wait until the rover and the helicopter are both safe on the surface of Mars and ready for action.”
More about the mission of perseverance
A key goal of the Perseverance on Mars mission is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and hide Martian rocks and sediments for later return to Earth.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (the European Space Agency), will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for further analysis.
The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger NASA initiative that includes missions to the moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon through NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 perseverance mission and the demonstration of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology for NASA.
The press package for landing Perseverance can be found at:
go.nasa.gov/perseverance-landing-press-kit
An ingenious press kit can be found at:
go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit