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- NASA’s Mars 2020 mission is approaching its landing date, which should be in a few weeks.
- The mission, which includes the Perseverance rover as well as the Mars Ingenuity helicopter, depends on a successful landing which is largely out of the hands of NASA at the moment.
- The landing sequence is mostly automated, so there isn’t much that NASA engineers can do but sit back and hope for the best.
When NASA launched its Mars 2020 mission last year, it was the end of one chapter and the start of another. The mission, which has been traveling in space for several months, is expected to arrive on the Martian surface on February 18, and NASA is counting the seconds until a landing occurs.
One of the biggest obstacles that still exists between NASA and a successful mission to Mars 2020 is the landing of the rover capsule itself. The so-called “seven minutes of terror” that NASA often talks about landing is essentially a seven-minute window where the spacecraft will begin its descent and, if all goes according to plan, provide the most technologically advanced machine. advanced never built for space. exploration on the surface of the planet.
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In a new blog post, NASA offers an overview of the mission’s situation and potential pitfalls in its path:
The spacecraft has approximately 25.6 million miles (41.2 million kilometers) remaining in its 292.5 million mile (470.8 million kilometers) journey and currently closes that distance at 1.6 miles per second (2.5 kilometers per second). Once atop the Red Planet’s atmosphere, a seven-minute action-packed descent awaits – complete with equivalent sun surface temperatures, supersonic parachute inflation, and the first-ever Autonomous Guided Landing on Mars.
Due to the distance between Mars and Earth, it is out of the question to control the spacecraft in real time. The controls would take a few minutes to get to their destination, so it’s up to the spacecraft to factor in all the variables that could threaten the descent and landing.
If the spacecraft is successful and the landing goes off without a hitch, the potential for new discoveries on Mars is enormous. The Perseverance rover is the most advanced piece of equipment ever to be sent to Mars, and it will be able to tell scientists things on the Red Planet that have never been studied in this way before.
“Perseverance’s sophisticated scientific instruments will not only aid in the hunt for fossilized microbial life, but will also expand our knowledge of Martian geology and its past, present and future,” said Ken Farley of Caltech, a scientist working on the mission. March 2020, in a statement. “Our science team has been very busy planning the best way to work with what we anticipate to be a leading data source. 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 for the past decade, covering the latest news and trends in virtual reality, wearable devices, smartphones and future technologies. Most recently, Mike served as a technical writer for The Daily Dot and has been featured on USA Today, Time.com, and countless other websites and print. His love of reporting comes right after his gambling addiction.
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