NASA’s Rover Perseverance to experience violent seven-minute descent to Mars



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One of the most difficult parts of setting up a rover on the surface of Mars is the approximately seven minute descent from orbit to the surface of the Red Planet. NASA is preparing for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover to land on Mars in about 20 days. Currently, Perseverance has approximately 23.9 million miles remaining on its 292.5 million mile journey to Mars.

The spacecraft closes on Mars at a speed of 1.6 miles per second. Once the spacecraft reaches the atmosphere of Mars, its seven-minute descent will begin. The spacecraft will experience extreme heat with temperatures equivalent to the surface of the sun.

It will decelerate rapidly using a parachute that will inflate as the spacecraft moves at supersonic speeds. The conclusion of the heart-wrenching landing process will be the first-ever autonomous guided landing on Mars. Once the landing is successfully completed, Perseverance can prepare to begin studying the surface of Mars.

We mentioned earlier this morning that one of his important experiments would be to deploy the Ingenuity helicopter to see if airlift is possible on Mars. The main reason for Perseverance to roam the surface of Mars is to look for signs of ancient life and to collect samples that will one day be returned to Earth for study.

Perseverance was built using the collective knowledge gained from past missions to Mars. Her operations team hopes she will expand knowledge about Mars and solve mysteries about the possibility of ancient life on Mars. Jezero Crater is where Perseverance will land, a 28 mile dry basin home to a river delta and an ancient water-filled lake in the distant past. Perseverance is expected to arrive on Mars on February 18.

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