NASA’s Mars 2020
Perseverance rover mission is on its way to the Red Planet to search for signs
of ancient life and collect samples to send back to Earth.
Humanity’s most sophisticated rover launched with the
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at 7:50 a.m. EDT (4:50 a.m. PDT) Friday on a United
Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
“With the launch of Perseverance, we begin another
historic mission of exploration,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
“This amazing explorer’s journey has already required the very best from all of
us to get it to launch through these challenging times. Now we can look forward
to its incredible science and to bringing samples of Mars home even as we advance
human missions to the Red Planet. As a mission, as an agency, and as a country,
we will persevere.”
The ULA Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage initially placed
the Mars 2020 spacecraft into a parking orbit around Earth. The engine fired
for a second time and the spacecraft separated from the Centaur as expected.
Navigation data indicate the spacecraft is perfectly on course to Mars.
Mars 2020 sent its first signal to ground controllers
viaNASA’s Deep Space Networkat 9:15 a.m. EDT (6:15 a.m. PDT). However, telemetry
(more detailed spacecraft data) had not yet been acquired at that point. Around
11:30 a.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. PDT), a signal with telemetry was received from Mars
2020 by NASA ground stations. Data indicate the spacecraft had entered a state
known as safe mode, likely because a part of the spacecraft was a little colder
than expected while Mars 2020 was in Earth’s shadow. All temperatures are now
nominal and the spacecraft is out of Earth’s shadow.
When a spacecraft enters safe mode, all but essential
systems are turned off until it receives new commands from mission control. An
interplanetary launch is fast-paced and dynamic, so a spacecraft is designed to
put itself in safe mode if its onboard computer perceives conditions are not
within its preset parameters. Right now, the Mars 2020 mission is completing a
full health assessment on the spacecraft and is working to return the
spacecraft to a nominal configuration for its journey to Mars.
The Perseverance rover’s astrobiology mission is to
seek out signs of past microscopic life on Mars, explore the diverse geology of
its landing site,Jezero Crater, and demonstrate key technologies that will help
us prepare for future robotic and human exploration.
“Jezero Crater is the perfect place to search for
signs of ancient life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
“Perseverance is going to make discoveries that cause us to rethink our
questions about what Mars was like and how we understand it today. As our
instruments investigate rocks along an ancient lake bottom and select samples
to return to Earth, we may very well be reaching back in time to get the
information scientists need to say that life has existed elsewhere in the
universe.”
The Martian rock and dust Perseverance’s Sample
Caching System collects could answer fundamental questions about the potential
for life to exist beyond Earth. Two future missions currently under
consideration by NASA, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), will
work together to get the samples to an orbiter for return to Earth. When they
arrive on Earth, the Mars samples will undergo in-depth analysis by scientists
around the world using equipment far too large to send to the Red Planet.
An
Eye to a Martian Tomorrow
While most of Perseverance’s seven instruments are
geared toward learning more about the planet’s geology and astrobiology, the
MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) instrument’s job is
focused on missions yet to come. Designed to demonstrate that converting
Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen is possible, it could lead to future
versions of MOXIE technology that become staples on Mars missions, providing
oxygen for rocket fuel and breathable air.
Also future-leaning is the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter,
which will remain attached to the belly of Perseverance for the flight to Mars
and the first 60 or so days on the surface. A technology demonstrator,
Ingenuity’s goal is a pure flight test — it carries no science instruments.
Over 30 sols (31 Earth days), the helicopter will
attempt up to five powered, controlled flights. The data acquired during these
flight tests will help the next generation of Mars helicopters provide an
aerial dimension to Mars explorations — potentially scouting for rovers and
human crews, transporting small payloads, or investigating difficult-to-reach
destinations.
The rover’s technologies for entry, descent, and
landing also will provide information to advance future human missions to Mars.
“Perseverance is the most capable rover in history
because it is standing on the shoulders of our pioneers Sojourner, Spirit,
Opportunity, and Curiosity,” said Michael Watkins, director of NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “In the same way, the descendants
of Ingenuity and MOXIE will become valuable tools for future explorers to the
Red Planet and beyond.”
About seven cold, dark, unforgiving months of
interplanetary space travel lay ahead for the mission — a fact never far from
the mind of Mars 2020 project team.
“There is still a lot of road between us and Mars,”
said John McNamee, Mars 2020 project manager at JPL. “About 290 million miles
of them. But if there was ever a team that could make it happen, it is this
one. We are going to Jezero Crater. We will see you there Feb. 18, 2021.”
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of
America’s larger Moon to Mars exploration approach that includes missions to
the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged
with sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, NASA will
establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through
NASA’s Artemis program.
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