NASA recently sent to “another world”, the most advanced and biggest rover ever that landed on Mars after having completed a 203-day journey. The rover traveled 293 million miles which is equivalent to 472 million kilometers. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Southern California confirmed the same.
More about the Touchdown
Equipped with the latest technology, the Mars Perseverance Rover mission was launched on July 30th, 2020 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The
Quoting Steve Jurczyk, the acting NASA Administrator, “This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA; The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet”.
Similar to the size of a car, the 1,026-kilogram robotic geologist and astrobiologist will be subjected to many weeks of testing and trials prior to the exploration of the Jezero Crater.
NASA Mars mission timeline- EDL
The rover had a microphone that did record the so-called first sounds of Mars. Right from the time the parachuted inflated, the camera covers every detail of the descending process when it finally lands at the crater.
At a distance of 7 miles from above the surface, the descent is very carefully captured in detail. The presence of high-definition cameras make the recording even better and made the Mars rover pictures possible.
The world got to see the closest possible views of the Red Planet with the commencement of the descent of the spacecraft when it enters at a height of 12,500mph, the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet.
Videos allowed spectators to enjoy the spectacular Mars rover landing on the crater.
What is the main objective of Mission to Mars?
The Space rover will “characterize” the geology of the planet and find out the type of climate that existed earlier on the Red Planet. This will undoubtedly help us to know or provide signals of human existence on the planet. Collecting Martian rock or regolith is also of utmost importance. Its success will determine NASA Mars manned missions.
More about the Jezero Crater- the site of Mars mission
How does the Mars Perseverance Rover mission get power?
A Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) provides the much-needed heat and electricity as part of the power system. It allows the rover to explore the Jezero Crater.
There’s an ongoing partnership between the U.S Department of Energy and NASA. Due to it, the development of power systems was made possible for civil space applications.
According to JPL Director Michael Watkins, “Landing on Mars is always an incredibly difficult task and we are proud to continue building on our past success”.
The engineers in the project will test Perseverance through several tests and stages. They will be testing the subsystems, instruments, and subroutines. This process takes a couple
If these tests and deploying is successful, Ingenuity will add dimension to the mission to Mars and the search for microbial life from ancient times can begin on the Red Planet at the earliest.