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Feb 24, 2021 · Perseverance is the centerpiece of the $2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission, which will hunt for signs of ancient life and collect and cache dozens of samples for eventual return to Earth.
The launch of Mars 2020 was the third of three space missions sent toward Mars during the July 2020 Mars launch window, with missions also launched by the national space agencies of the United Arab Emirates (the Emirates Mars Mission with the orbiter Hope on July 19, 2020) and China (the Tianwen-1 mission on July 23, 2020, with an orbiter, deployable and remote cameras, lander, and Zhurong rover).
- Overview
- Anniversary Flight
It's an eerie scene: A desolate Martian landscape, completely empty, save for the wreckage of what appears to be an alien spacecraft. And it was all captured by a tiny helicopter flying overhead.
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, the first to fly on another planet, has beamed back some of the most fascinating photos of the red planet yet, showing off what is actually debris from its landing aboard the Perseverance rover in February 2021. The space agency said this week that the debris that allowed for a safe descent could contain useful insights for future missions.
The 10 aerial color photos feature both the parachute that aided the roughly $2.5 billion rover's landing, as well as the cone-shaped backshell that protected it during its intense descent to the surface. They were taken during Ingenuity's 26th flight, NASA said.
"NASA extended Ingenuity flight operations to perform pioneering flights such as this," said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity's team lead at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Every time we're airborne, Ingenuity covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve."
Known as the "seven minutes of terror," scientists say that the entry, descent and landing on Mars is stressful not just for them, but for the rovers themselves — due to the high temperatures and other extremes that come with it. The new, highly-detailed images, could potentially improve the landings of future spacecraft, including the Mars Sample Return Lander, which promises to bring Martian samples home to Earth for further study for the very first time.
"Perseverance had the best-documented Mars landing in history, with cameras showing everything from parachute inflation to touchdown," said JPL's Ian Clark, former Perseverance systems engineer and now Mars Sample Return ascent phase lead.
Ingenuity's Flight 26 came on April 19, the one-year anniversary of its historic first flight. In its infancy, researchers were unsure just how long the $85 million drone would last on the red planet, celebrating each and every flight as a major milestone.
This time, it flew 26 feet above the ground for 159 seconds to capture the images. In total, the helicopter, which weighs only about four pounds, traveled 1,181 feet during its journey.
"To get the shots we needed, Ingenuity did a lot of maneuvering, but we were confident because there was complicated maneuvering on flights 10, 12, and 13," said Håvard Grip, chief pilot of Ingenuity at JPL. "Our landing spot set us up nicely to image an area of interest for the Perseverance science team on Flight 27, near 'Séítah' ridge."
Ingenuity has now logged over 49 minutes of flight time in total and traveled 3.9 miles. But the new area of operations over the Jezero Crater's dry river delta — filled with jagged cliffs, boulders and angled surfaces — marks a massive departure from the relatively flat terrain it traversed in earlier flights.
Researchers hope the helicopter can now survey the delta to help determine which path Perseverance should climb to reach the top. Additionally, it could help the team identify potential targets for scientific exploration, as the rover begins its search for ancient life on Mars.
•How NASA flew a drone on Mars
- CBS News
- 14 min
Perseverance, [2] is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Jezero crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It was manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched on July 30, 2020, at 11:50 UTC. [3] Confirmation that the rover successfully landed on Mars was received on February 18, 2021, at 20:55 UTC.
Feb 20, 2021 · According to this answer regarding intentional crash-landing of spacecraft in general, several reasons are postulated, such as that this is to avoid a landing, which would damage the Martian surface (but this is exactly what the Curiosity's sky crane did in this image of the crash site and debris field). Is there a source that would explain the specific rationale for intentionally crash ...
Oct 25, 2016 · Mars's thin and unpredictable atmosphere means much can go wrong. Like ESA, NASA is also planning to drop a rover to the surface in 2020, as is China. "Every Mars landing attempt teaches us things," Chen says. "The only true failure is to stop trying." For more coverage on the solar system, visit our Planets topic page.
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Feb 18, 2021 · Mars 2020 will deploy its 70.5-foot-wide (21.5 m) supersonic parachute about four minutes after atmospheric entry, when the spacecraft has slowed to a much more manageable 940 mph (1,512 kph).
