Off To Mars, NASA Perseverance Rover Has A Long, Scary Journey Ahead
Like many other space agencies, NASA is eyeing to send humans to the Martian surface soon
US space agency NASA has taken off for Mars in a historic launch that aims to explore the red planet further.
The $2.4 billion program started its journey from Florida's Cape Canaveral at 5:20 pm IST, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program.
NASA / Elderfox Documentaries
Aboard the Atlas 5 rocket that took off, is a car-sized rover named ¡®Perseverance¡¯ along with a mini helicopter called 'Ingenuity' for flyby missions. The ultimate destination for both is the red planet. But they won't be reaching the planet anytime soon.
In fact, the mission to Mars is an elaborate one, that will eventually form a stepping stone for NASA to one day send astronauts to Earth's neighbouring planet.
Here is a look at what the mission timeline holds for the visitor from Earth.
NASA Perseverance journey to Mars
NASA Mars 2020 launch (Screengrab)
Having taken off on July 30, the package bound to Mars is expected to touch down on the planet on February 18 next year. The near six and a half month journey is possibly the shortest one that the space agency could aim at. This is because of the favourable relative positions of Earth and Mars, which is seen about every 26 months. The short journey also means an energy-efficient trip to the neighbouring planet.
That is also the reason why we have seen a total of three launches to the red planet within this month.
While the package cruises to Mars, NASA engineers will have a total of five opportunities (plus one backup maneuver and one contingency maneuver) to adjust the flight path of the spacecraft. This will be done through a controlled firing of eight thrusters for a specific time to simply tweak the flight path.
These maneuvers are extremely important as they are the only way to stick to years of planning of landing the package on the Jezero Crater on Mars. The site has been selected for landing as it was once a lake in the northern hemisphere of Mars, making it a promising location for any signs of ancient Martian life if it ever existed.
Landing on Mars
In the final 45 days of the flight, the spacecraft will enter the "approach phase" wherein the NASA Perseverance spacecraft will be prepared for Entry, Descent and Landing. This is also when the final three trajectory correction manoeuvres may be performed, if need be.
The Mars 2020 spacecraft will follow the same entry, descent, landing process similar as used in landing the Mars rover, Curiosity but with new breakthrough technologies.
Mars 2020 is supposed to land at Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. The landing, however, is sure to map a very anxious few minutes for NASA. This is because of a combination of problems that the engineers will not be able to do anything about. Everything will be done by the computers onboard.
Entering the atmosphere
Artist's render of NASA rover landing on Mars (Image: NASA)
- 10 minutes before entering the Martian atmosphere, the cruise stage will be ejected from the spacecraft which will eventually burn up. Upon entering, the package will reach temperatures of up to 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit (2,100 degrees Celsius). To tackle this, NASA has equipped the package with a heat shield. The shield will maintain the temperature inside to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 Celsius).
- The same atmospheric friction that will cause the extreme heat will also slow down the package from 13,200 to 1,000 miles per hour (5.9 to 0.45 kilometers per second).
- Once the package reaches an altitude of 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the ground, a specially designed parachute will pop up, slowing it down to 9% of its original speed. From a distance of 8 km, the heat shield will be dropped altogether.
- At just over 3 km, a radar on the package will begin to calculate speed and altitude in order to determine when to start powered descent. An early start can eat up the fuel early while a late start will crash the rover to the ground.
- Around 80 seconds after heat shield separation, the backshell and parachute will separate and the package will enter a brief free fall.
- With a kilometre of distance between the package and the ground, eight retrorockets on the package will fire to slow down the descent to less than 3 kmph. This is where the landing gear will kick into action.
- Four of eight retrorockets will shut off, following which, three nylon ropes and an "umbilical cord" will spool out to lower the Perseverance rover on the Martian surface.
- Once lowered, the spools will be cut from the rover and the descent stage will fly at least 150 metres away from the rover.
NASA Mission Mars: Perseverance Ingenuity goals
NASA Perseverance Mars Rover (Image: NASA)
Once on Mars, the six-wheeled Perseverance robot will spend at least one Mars year (about 687 Earth days) on the planet. It will be accompanied by an autonomous Ingenuity helicopter that will expand the exploration reach on the Martian surface.
Like many other space agencies, NASA is eyeing to send humans to the Martian surface soon. Its Mars 2020 mission is a step up that ladder, as the Perseverance rover will try to ¡°gather knowledge and demonstrate technologies that address the challenges of future human expeditions to Mars,¡± says the space agency.
Part of this will be completed through the future missions to the planet. For now, Perseverance will collect samples of Martian rocks and store them in cigar-sized capsules. It will then leave them scattered on the red planet, which can then be picked up by a future rover.
NASA
This will be a first for humans wherein a rover will work towards bringing samples of Martian rocks back to Earth. Returning such samples to Earth will help scientists better study the samples in laboratories. The only alternative to this was to take special room-sized equipment to Mars to conduct experiments, which is itself impossible until further examination of the planet for habitability.
In addition, the rover will analyse the surface of the planet for ¡°high-priority science goals¡±, including a potential for life. For instance, Perseverance will try to test a method for ¡°producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere¡± for future human visits to the planet. It will also try to identify other resources, like water, on the planet as well as characterize ¡°weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions¡± that could affect future astronauts.
