- 3056 - PERSEVERANCE - the rover has safely landed. It is the most technologically advanced rover that humans have set on the Mars surface. . The Mars 2020 Mission will use five new technologies to help future missions on Mars, both crewed and uncrewed. Two of these are technology demonstrations.
--------------- 3056 - PERSEVERANCE - the rover has safely landed.
- The Perseverance rover has landed on Mars, February 18, 2021. Perseverance is the largest and the most complex rover built by NASA.
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- Every 1.5 years, Earth and Mars are in such a configuration that reduces the travel time from nine months to seven months. That’s why two countries, the UAE and China, also launched their respective missions to Mars.
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- “MEDLI2” is the abbreviation of “Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2“. The spacecraft takes seven minutes to land on Mars after it enters its atmosphere. These seven minutes are the most challenging part of the mission. Since Mars is about 14 “light minute” away, it takes 14 minutes for the signals to reach Mars. Hence, we cannot control the rover’s landing in real-time from the control room. The entire system is computerized.
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- MEDLI2 has electronic devices that will be active during the EDL. The spacecraft will enter Mars’ atmosphere traveling at about 12,500 miles per hour. MEDLI2 will collect data during the last seven minutes of flight, leading up to when the rover lands on the surface of Mars.
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- Similar technology was first used during the landing of the Curiosity rover in 2012. The 2012 landing data raised several important questions that will be answered in the 2021 Entry, Descent and Landing of Perseverance.
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- Since the EDL is the most crucial part of the mission, there is no margin of error, and every piece of data is significant.
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- TRN is the short form of “Terrain Relative Navigation“. To ensure a future for the rover, it must land in a safe place. During the Apollo moon landings, astronauts sighted landmarks for landing and looked out the window during the final descent to avoid craters and boulder fields and land safely.
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- TRN will take pictures of the landing zone, compare them with the maps prepared from previous orbital missions, and divert the spacecraft if necessary.
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- MEDA stands for the “Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer“. Mars is a dusty world. Dust dominates Mars’ weather the way that water dominates Earth’s weather. The dust storms on Mars can sometimes cover the entire planet.
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- In 2018, we lost communication with the Opportunity rover, due to a raging dust storm. Nicknamed Oppy, the rover served for about 14 years and was one of the best-performing rovers on Mars.
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- MEDA is a suite of environmental sensors designed to record dust optical properties and six atmospheric parameters: wind speed/direction, pressure, relative humidity, air temperature, ground temperature, and radiation in discrete bands of the UV, visible, and IR ranges of the spectrum.
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- MEDE sensors are located on the rover’s mast “neck” and on the deck, front, and interior of the rover’s body. The 12-pound instrument is expected to return 11 megabytes of data to help us explore weather conditions on Mars.
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- It is a crucial part of the mission as it will help future astronauts know what weather conditions they’ll face on Mars. Their safety depends on accurate weather predictions. MEDA as a simple abbreviation spells two Spanish words that can be roughly translated as “give me,” as in “MEDA! Give me the weather, dust, and radiation report on Mars!”
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- MEDA will help prepare for human exploration by providing daily weather reports and information on the radiation and wind patterns on Mars.
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- “MOXIE” stands for “Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment“. When we talk about human-crewed Mars missions, we should plan for their safe return to Earth. Otherwise, it would be a suicide mission.
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- For their safe return, we need a rocket. For the rocket to take off from the Martian surface, we need oxygen. Of course, we also need oxygen for our astronauts, but the amount of oxygen required as a fuel for rockets is far more than what they need for breathing.
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- Taking such a large amount of oxygen from Earth would be an unrealistic idea. So we need to develop a technology for creating oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars, and MOXIE is the first step.
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- MOXIE will demonstrate how future explorers might produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere for propellant and for breathing. The Martian atmosphere is completely different from Earth’s.
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- Carbon dioxide makes up 96% of the gas in Mars’ atmosphere. Oxygen is only 0.13%, compared to 21% in Earth’s atmosphere. We need to develop a way to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. Is it possible? Well, the trees do that all day. The question is, can we do it?
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- MOXIE will collect CO2 (carbon dioxide) from the Martian atmosphere, then electrochemically split the CO2 molecules into O2 (oxygen) and CO (carbon monoxide) at 800° C. The O2 is then analyzed for purity before being vented back out to the Mars atmosphere along with the CO and other exhaust products.
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- MOXIE is situated in the front-right of the rover. The 17.1 kilogram apparatus will run for one hour per experiment in which it is expected to produce up to 10 grams of oxygen. MOXIE is one of the two technology demonstrations. If this experiment turns out to be successful, NASA may dedicate a full-scale mission to this technology.
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- The Mars Helicopter is another technology demonstration and a major highlight mission. For the first time in history, a human-made object will enjoy a powered flight on another planet.
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- The 1.8-kilogram helicopter has been named “Ingenuity“. We ope to learn how it will fly in the fragile atmosphere of Mars.
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February 21, 2021 PERSEVERANCE - the rover has landed 3056
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--------------------- --- Sunday, February 21, 2021 ---------------------------
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