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NASA's Mars 2020 mission could teach us incredible things about our global neighbor, and even provide us with valuable information that will shape the plans for future manned missions on the red planet. It could be a big deal for humanity … but first, it must really land.
One of the most important components of the Mars Lander 2020 is the Lander Vision System, or VLS. The VLS will allow the spacecraft to automatically specify its landing point as it rises to the surface. NASA recently put it to the test by placing it in front of the helicopter.
It is difficult to touch another planet for several reasons. For spacecraft bound for Mars, the huge distance causes communication delays that prevent anything that looks like real-time control, which means the Mars 2020 has to be smart enough to pick the point of landing downhill.
The Mars 2020 satellite will be the first to have this capability, and like any new technology, it requires a lot of testing. NASA explains:
On a test flight in Death Valley, California, an Airbus helicopter was carrying a technical model of the Lander Vision System (LVS) that will guide NASA's next Mars mission to a safe landing on the planet. red. During the flight – one in a series – the helicopter (which was not part of the mission and served only as a test) and his crew, consisting of two people, performed a pre-established sequence of maneuvers while LVS was collecting and analyzed the images of the barren, mountainous terrain below.
The March 2020 demise of NASA is currently scheduled to begin in July of next year. It will actually reach Mars by 2021, but when it does, it will rely on the VLS to determine the safest place in the landing area to land on.
Avoiding big rocks and other dangerous terrain is a top priority for NASA. The LG will eventually deploy the March 2020 rover and the robot will become NASA's most advanced Mars exploration material to date. He will be able to perform many different tasks, including collecting samples from Mars and storing them for future missions back to Earth.
Image Source: NASA / JPL-Caltech
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