Florida: After nearly 300 million miles, NASA’s Perseverance rover completes its journey to Mars on Thursday, February 18. To reach the surface of the Red Planet, it has to survive the harrowing final phase known as Entry, Descent, and Landing, NASA stated today. It added that only then can the six-wheeled rover – “the biggest, heaviest, cleanest, and most sophisticated robotic geologist ever launched into space” – search Jezero Crater for signs of ancient life, carry a variety of out-of-this-world experiments that will help prepare us for future human exploration, and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth. It further elaborated that similar in size to a car, Perseverance was the heaviest rover ever sent to the surface of Mars.
The Mars 2020 mission was part of a larger NASA initiative that included missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA had announced that it will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon through its Artemis lunar exploration plans, and will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.
Also read:NASA’s Perseverance Rover now on way to Mars to explore ancient life on the Red Planet
As mentioned above, a key science objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterise the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and will be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and sediment for later return to Earth. Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
During landing, the rover will plunge through the thin Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 mph (about 20,000 kph). A parachute and powered descent will slow the rover down to about 2 mph (3 kph). During what is known as the sky crane manoeuvre, the descent stage will lower the rover on three cables to land softly on six wheels at Jezero Crater.
Perseverance also is carrying a technology experiment – the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
“If there’s one thing we know, it’s that landing on Mars is never easy,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Communications Marc Etkind. He added: “But as NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance has an extraordinary engineering pedigree and mission team. We are excited to invite the entire world to share this exciting event with us!”
To celebrate Perseverance’s Red Planet landing, the Empire State Building in New York lit its tower red on Tuesday, February 16, 2021 starting at sunset until 2 a.m. the following morning. In addition, the Los Angeles International Airport gateway pylons has been glowing red from sundown on Wednesday, February 17, through sunrise Friday, February 19.
Other sites in the United States recognising the upcoming landing include select buildings along the Chicago skyline, such as the Adler Planetarium. NASA invites cities around the country and world to participate in “lighting the town red.”
NASA is offering many ways for the public to participate and stay up to date on landing information, mission highlights, and interaction opportunities.
As the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover nears entry, descent, and landing on the Red Planet, NASA has made arrangements for live coverage and landing commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) beginning at 2:15 p.m. EST (12:45 am Friday Indian Standard Time) on the NASA TV Public Channel and the agency’s website, as well as the NASA App, and other social media platforms. Touchdown is scheduled for approximately 3:55 p.m. EST (2.25 am Friday IST).
Watch the live telecast of Perseverance rover’s landing on Mars here
– global bihari bureau
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