NASA's Perseverance Mars rover landing will be must-see TV
By: Eric Mack - cnet
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
NASA is just weeks away from landing a shiny new robot on the surface of Mars, and for the first time, we'll be able to see and hear what it's like to touch down on another world.
Perseverance is due to land in Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, becoming the first artificial object to land on the surface since the Mars Insight lander in 2018 and the first rover since Curiosity touched down in 2012.
But the new rover on the block is carrying more audio-visual gear than its predecessors to capture portions of the pivotal entry, descent and landing, or EDL, phase of the mission. A camera mounted on the back shell of the spacecraft is pointed up and will be able to catch a view of the parachutes that will deploy during descent to slow Perseverance as it comes in for its landing. Beneath this is a downward-pointing camera on the descent stage, which further slows and orients the rover for landing.
Finally, the rover itself is equipped with cameras and a microphone. Altogether, this suite of tech should provide us with the most detailed images and audio of a landing on Mars yet.
"We're going to be able to watch ourselves land for the first time on another planet," Lori Glaze, who heads the Planetary Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, told reporters during a briefing Wednesday.
The entire EDL phase will last only about seven minutes, but EDL lead Allen Chen calls it "the most critical and most dangerous part of the mission."
Perseverance will hit the Martian atmosphere traveling at almost 12,000 miles per hour (19,312 kilometers per hour), streaking across the sky as it begins to slow down. A 70-foot (21 meters) diameter parachute will deploy to slow it further. Afterward, its heat shield is released and radar is activated to help it determine its own location.
At an altitude of about one mile (1.5 kilometers), the descent module fires its engines and a new terrain relative navigation system, or TRN, kicks in to identify a safe landing spot. TRN is basically a sort of computer vision that allows the spacecraft to look at the terrain below and match it up with maps in its database.
The system slows down to a literal crawl, and then it's time for "sky crane," the same sort of hovering landing system the Curiosity rover used, which will allow Perseverance to basically lower itself softly to the surface.
This whole process will be fully automated without any input from mission control because of the delay in sending radio signals back and forth from Mars to the Earth.
Perseverance carries a number of science instruments to help look for signs of ancient life on our neighboring world, to collect samples that will be returned to Earth and to test some technologies for future Mars missions.
Also, it has a tiny helicopter.
Robots have spent years rolling around Mars, which is pretty cool, but for the first time NASA will use a small helicopter, dubbed Ingenuity , to try flying around the planet.
But before Ingenuity can fly, Perseverance has to nail its landing first. While its cameras and microphones will capture much of this whole process, there won't be a live feed like we've become accustomed to from the International Space Station or most launches from Earth. That's because the data relay Perseverance will be using 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'll be able to see at least some low-res images of the environment around Perseverance on the surface shortly after landing. We may have to wait a few days for more imagery and audio that paint the full picture of the landing process.
We will, however, have live feeds from mission control, which provided some of the more iconic images from the Curiosity landing. (Mohawk guy, anyone?) Of course, COVID-19 protocols will be in effect at mission control, but it's unlikely that even the pandemic will dampen the celebration of a successful landing.
"I don't think that Covid is going to be able to stop us from jumping up and down and fist bumping," said Deputy Project Manager Matt Wallace. "You're going to see a lot of happy people no matter what, once we get this thing on the surface safely."
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Mission Trailer from NASA/JPL
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Mission Website: NASA Science - Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover
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The NASA TV broadcast from Mission Control starts at 11:15 a.m. PST/2:15 p.m. EST on Feb 18, 2021
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New camera feeds for the descent? Awesome! Don't miss it!
History in the making. I am soooo looking forward to this.
Here's hoping for a successful landing.
Ever since I was a kid, have resisted closing my eyes when shit was about to happen.
Watched two shuttles blow up and couldn't tear my eyes away.
Shh! Don't talk about things blowing up. You're gonna jinx it.
Oh, this is going to be amazing. I'm really looking forward to seeing/hearing this landing.
The video was so cool this is great stuff.
The primary mission for this one is searching for traces of life. I'm all excited about that.
I'm a little stressed out, too. So many things can go wrong with the landing. NASA has extraordinary skills, though. They managed to pull off a similar landing in 2012 without a hitch. Hopefully they can do it again.
*think positive, think positive, think positive*
It's possible that they may bump into some of my rellies. After all, it is the RED planet.
LOL. Maybe they'll bump into all of our rellies. I don't put much stock into the idea at the moment, but it's possible that microbial life started there first, and that an impact blasted some of it into space, which then fell down the gravity well toward the sun and possibly seeded Earth along the way.
Unfortunately, I don't think Perseverance has a DNA sequencer on board, so that particular question probably won't be answered even if it finds life. It's supposed to prepare samples for a future return to Earth, though, so maybe someday.
They may be waiting...
Ack, ack ack.
ACK!
Haha. I actually really like that movie, in a cult classic sort of way.
Hopefully, NASA remembered to send loudspeakers and a copy of Slim Whitman's 'Indian Love Call' along with Perseverance.
You know, just in case.
In case there are any Martians reading this, here is Slim Whitman singing Indian Love Call right from the movie soundtrack.
It works on more than just Martians. I think my head just exploded.
No, wait. It's still there. Close call, though. I must have shut the song off just in the nick of time.
This is very cool. Thanks for posting it Dig. I will be watching.
Fingers crossed all goes well, landing on another planet is still cutting edge stuff
Thanks for the reminder Dig! Setting my DVR as we speak!
When I was a kid there was an amusement park called P.O.P (Pacific Ocean Park) on a pier in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica. It was only open from 1958 to 1967. My favorite thing there was called Flight to Mars. It was really fun.
Cool. Was it a ride through artificial Martian scenery, or something like that?
First, there was a simulated flight to Mars with an audio-visual presentation, then I remember walking, or talking a moving walkway, through exhibits of Martian life. There may have been more involved, but it's been a really long time.
It's been a long time since I thought of P.O.P.
Thanks for that memory.
I knew you would like that.
In the middle of binge watching a series called The Expanse. Hopefully our colonization of Mars turns out better than that! (-:
I don't know. The Martians have some kick ass tech in The Expanse. I mean, the Roci is Martian, after all.
Pretty cool cities, too. Far beyond anything we could make in real life at the moment, and probably for quite some time.
The Belters are the ones I wouldn't want any future colonies to turn out like. Too many of them come off as being dumber than a box of rocks.
Really good show, by the way. I'm watching season 5 now, and Mars plays pretty big in it. Not knowing where you're at, I won't say anything more, good or bad, to avoid giving up potential spoilers.
Just wrapped up season 3. Looking forward Season 4!
What I meant by comment 7 was that I hope humans don't split up into warring factions, yet again, as they do in that show. I'm hoping that by the time we have developed the tech to colonize and terraform Mars that we have gotten past the point in our evolution where we feel the need to destroy each other.
Oh, I see what you mean. We'll probably need to evolve a different global socio-economic system before that can happen, though. One without so many built-in competitive divisions.