NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover landing will be a must-see TV

NASA is weeks away from a shiny new robot landing on the surface of Mars, and for the first time, we’ll be able to see and hear what it’s like to land on another world.

Perseverance is expected to land in Jezero Crater on February 18, the first man-made object to land on the surface since the Mars Insight Lander in 2018 and the first rover since Curiosity landed in 2012.

But the new rover on the block carries more audio-visual gear than its predecessors to capture parts of the pivotal entry, descent and landing, or EDL, phase of the mission. A camera mounted on the spacecraft’s rear hull is pointed upward and will be able to capture a view of the parachutes that will deploy on the descent to slow Perseverance as it lands. Underneath is a downward-facing camera on the descent stage, which slows down and further steers the rover for landing.

Finally, the rover itself is equipped with cameras and a microphone. Overall, this suite of technologies should provide us with the most detailed imagery and audio of a Mars landing yet.

“We’re going to be able to watch ourselves land for the first time on another planet,” Lori Glaze, who heads the Planetary Sciences Division of NASA’s Science Missions Directorate, told reporters in a briefing Wednesday.

The entire EDL phase will only last about seven minutes, but Allen Chen, the head of the EDL, calls it “the most critical and dangerous part of the mission.”

Perseverance will hit the Martian atmosphere as it travels at nearly 12,000 miles per hour (19,312 kilometers per hour), crossing the sky as it begins to slow down. A parachute 21 meters in diameter will deploy to slow it down further. Then his heat shield is released and radar is activated to help him determine his own location.

At an altitude of about one mile (1.5 km), the descent module triggers its motors and a new terrain-related navigation system, or TRN, steps in to identify a safe landing point. TRN is basically a kind of computer vision that allows the spacecraft to look at the terrain below and match it with the maps in its database.

The system slows down to a literal crawl, then it’s time for “sky crane,” the same type of hover landing system used by the Curiosity rover, which will allow Perseverance to gently lower itself to the surface.

This entire process will be fully automated without any intervention from mission control due to the delay in sending radio signals back and forth from Mars to Earth.

Perseverance features a number of scientific instruments to help search for signs of ancient life on our neighboring world, to collect samples that will be sent back to Earth, and to test certain technologies for future missions to Mars.

In addition, he has a small helicopter.

Robots have spent years rolling around Mars, which is pretty cool, but for the first time, NASA will be using a small helicopter, called Ingenuity, to try to fly around the planet.

But before Ingenuity can fly, Perseverance must first make a successful landing. While its cameras and microphones capture much of this whole process, there won’t be a live feed like we’ve become used to on the International Space Station or most launches from Earth. This is because the data relay Perseverance will use during EDL is slower than even old dial-up connections.

However, after landing, it will be able to use the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to send images back to Earth. Chen estimates that we will be able to see at least a few low-resolution images of the environment around Perseverance on the surface shortly after landing. We may have to wait a few days for more pictures and audio that paint a full picture of the landing process.

We will, however, have live feeds from Mission Control, which provided some of the most iconic footage of the Curiosity landing. (Mohawk, anyone?) Of course, COVID-19 protocols will be in effect at mission control, but even the pandemic is unlikely to hold back the celebration of a successful landing.

“I don’t think Covid is going to be able to stop us from jumping up and down and banging our fists,” said deputy project director Matt Wallace. “You’re going to see a lot of happy people no matter what, once we get this thing to the surface safely.”

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