NASA's Perseverance rover: Perseverance is expected to land on the Red Planet on Thursday after a seven-month long journey. But for the final drop, the crew back on Earth won’t be able to guide the nerve-wracking high-stakes landing.
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At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, there’s a special name for the time it will take the Mars Perseverance spacecraft to travel from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the surface of the planet. The landing can be watched on NASA's YouTube channel.
"That descent stage takes us all the way down to about 20 meters off the ground. That's when we start the skycrane maneuver."
The NASA Perseverance Rover has certain facts, unlike others, that have the ability to woo you. Check them out here:
The Perseverance rover lifted off from Kennedy Space Centre on July 30, 2020. It took the spacecraft more than six months to reach Mars’ orbit.
Mastcam-Z is a pair of highly zoomable cameras that have given some undiscovered pictures of the red planet. Regarding this, NASA said in a statement, "Are we alone? We came here to look for signs of life, and to collect samples of Mars for study on Earth. To those who follow, we wish a safe journey and the joy of discovery."
What makes this landing extremely difficult is the rough terrain of the Jezero crater. The difficulty level was the main reason why no such landing was attempted by anyone before. The 45km-wide crater is filled with steep cliffs, sand dunes, and boulder fields. Scientists believe that it was home to an ancient river.
SuperCam is a laser put on the rover to vaporize bits of the Martian surface in order to determine the composition. The specific bit of meteorite scientists added to the instrument made a round-trip journey to the International Space Station before it hitched a ride on Perseverance to Mars.
The landing is the trickiest part of this mission. The spacecraft will enter Mars’ atmosphere at nearly 20,000 kmph which will lead to temperatures soaring up to 1,300-degree Celsius. Under extreme temperatures, the aeroshell will keep the rover safe and at room temperature.
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