On Thursday, February 18th, NASA’s Perseverance Rover will blaze through the atmosphere on Mars, at 12:30pm PST. The one ton, six wheeled vehicle the size of a small car is expected to attempt the difficult challenge to land on Mars. NASA calls the entry, descent and landing phase the “seven minutes of terror”. After a 7 month voyage from Earth to Mars, traveling at a speed of over 50,000mph, the final seven minutes from the top of the atmosphere to touchdown on the surface will be the most complex portion of the entire mission. The goal of going from the highspeed entrance to the atmosphere down to zero in seven minutes, while trying to hit the target landing area is difficult. Only about 40% of all mission sent to Mars, by any space agency have been successful. Perseverance is only the fifth rover to try to attempt this type of landing. This is all done by itself, with no help from those that control the spacecraft on Earth, due to the time delay for signals to reach the spacecraft. The great distance involved takes about 11 minutes to receive the news that the Perseverance has entered the Martian atmosphere. We will not know if the spacecraft is on the ground successfully for about 11 minutes after it happens.
In addition to the rover, Perseverance carries a very sophisticated, lightweight (4lb) helicopter called Ingenuity. This is the first of its kind and is the first test of flying in the thin Martian air. After landing on Mars, the rover will release the drone that is strapped to the belly of the rover. After release the rover backs away from the drone and watches with it’s camera as the drone is ordered to spin it rotors. The rotors spin to about three time faster than the helicopters on Earth, in order to get any lift in the Martian atmosphere that is 99% less dense than Earth. It will be undet control of the rover and the cameras on board the drone will relay the images back to the rover. The real time images of the terrain that if flies over will then be relayed back to Earth. We will all witness the first flight on an alien planet! After releasing Ingenuity, the Perseverance rover will focus on its primary goal of looking for signs of ancient microbial life in the rocks and sediment of the Jezzero crater basin. Be sure to check out the updates on NASA’s web site or check out the link below for live coverage.
Be sure to follow the landing on Mars at https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/
Seven Minutes of Terror
First Flight On Another Planet
Countdown To Impact on Mars- Details of the Mission