Mission to persevere on Mars
After approx He covered 470 million kilometers in seven months, El rover NASA will complete His journey to Mars Tomorrow, to search for traces of past life in Jizero Crater.
But to reach the surface of the red planet, It has to survive the tragic last stage known as entry, descent and descent, which NASA described as seven minutes of terror, ‘ A decisive maneuver that seeks to slow down the spacecraft that takes the robot to about 19,500 kilometers per hour, until the spacecraft deposition on the surface at a speed of about 3 kilometers per hour at the moment of landing.
The July launch of the Perseverance from Cape Canaveral on board the Atlas 5 missile of the United Launch Alliance and its journey to the Red Planet, despite its complexity, was only the beginning of the adventure. But tomorrow, the rover the size of a car must touch the surface of Mars and arrive intact for the wonderful work that awaits it in the next three years.
Argentine engineer Miguel San Martin, Which played a major role in the landing of other robotic vehicles on Mars such as Sojourner, spirit y opportunitiesExplained to Infobae How are those seven minutes of terror it takes to deposit a robot on the ground.
“They are the seven minutes that elapse between the moment the car enters the atmosphere at a speed of 20 thousand km / h, and in just 7 minutes, a fully automatic system, “You should reach the surface of Mars at zero speed,” said the engineer, who now works as a consultant at NASA.
“There are a number of fireworks devices that have to happen to separate the different parts. The radar has to find the surface, make the measurements, the velocity, and everything has to be done perfectly.” The horror comes from the fact that we cannot prove it on earth. That’s why we call it “the horror”, because if we forget the finer details, it doesn’t matter whether 99.9% of us did it right, and the 0.1% that we “failed” ends up in complete failure. This is why it is horror, because there is no room for error, ”continued the expert on the descent of robots on other worlds.
“Just looking at that and thinking about the landing, my blood really flows. Given the time it takes for radio signals to return from Mars to Earth, Perseverance should do it all on its own. We cannot help herSaeed Al Chen, commander of the NASA entry, landing and landing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.
Jezero Crater, chosen for its scientific potential, is NASA’s most dangerous site I never tried to land a rover. But the reward, which may give you answers about the origins of life itself, is worth it. “Success is not guaranteed,” Chen said. “This is especially true when we’re trying to take down the largest and heaviest rover we’ve ever built for the most dangerous site we’ve ever attempted to land.
Seven minutes of terror will begin tomorrow at 17:48 ARST as the capsule descends as it travels in perseverance from Mars orbit. Seventy-five seconds after the entry begins, the heat shield experiences the peak heating moment caused by the friction between the vehicle and the atmosphere. Temperatures are expected to reach 2,400 degrees. The heat shield makes it possible to resist frictional heat in contact with the red planet’s atmosphere.
Three minutes later, now in more than half the horror, a 21-meter-wide parachute was deployed that managed to reduce the speed to 1512 kilometers per hour at 11,200 meters above the ground. (The height at which airplanes fly, for example). However, persistence falls like a very heavy boulder (with the term shield attached and burned) and at high speed. After that, the shield that performs its function of not burning the ship and falls off. There, it detects the bottom of the capsule with radar units and cameras that work in tandem with the software to ensure the Perseverance is put in a safe place. This system, called Terrain-Relative Navigation, is essentially autopilot that uses pre-obtained images of Mars to ensure the rover indicates the correct landing zone.
One minute to land and Perseverance emerges from the protective shell and falls freely on the surface 2,100 meters below it. But rover is not unprotected. It is wrapped in a metal equipment net known as Landing stage or Skycrane crane, With fuel tanks, sensors and eight retro missiles. The rockets start their launch when the spacecraft is traveling at 300 kilometers per hour and reduce the vertical velocity to just 3.
Perseverance, now at 20 meters, has one final flight on the ground: a string of sturdy nylon ropes that slowly lower it to the surface.. The dust produced by the retrograde rocket launches continually rises from the landing site as soon as the vehicle hits the ground. Once the landing stage reveals a successful landing, the explosive components penetrate the nylon cables and the retro rockets continue to fire away from the landing site, after which they collide with the surface.
Now safe on earth Perseverance will start broadcasting its first signals and images from Mars. After nearly three months of checking the equipment, the 3-meter-long car will traverse the roof at a speed of 0.16 kilometers per hour, looking for answers to the oldest questions in science.
Perseverance will search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, collect and store rocks and Martian regolith (broken rocks and dust) in order to undertake future missions to Earth, characterize the planet’s geology and climate, and pave the way for human exploration of the red planet.
I keep reading:
With three space missions in February, Mars is the biggest attraction in space for 2021
Why “persevere” is the new name for the next NASA robot that will travel to Mars
How’s Ingenio, the NASA helicopter that will fly to Mars in 2021
