Perseverance Lands on Mars!
- Thread starter nits74
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Great news as it was a risky deal. Gonna find some interesting stuff!
There is a board member who said one of his students was the winner of the contest to name the rover. Perseverance.....a great name! Tell your student he did a wonderful job!
Amazing achievement. As an engineer, it would be a dream job working on something like this. I don't think most people realize just how challenging this is (despite NASA having landed other rovers) especially including the new features. Can't wait to start seeing more results (video! sounds! signs of life in a former lake bed?).
BTW they're also preparing samples for a future mission to return them to earth. I haven't heard much discussion about that but I imagine they'd need a new fuel/propellant source for the return trip, even though it requires less to escape Mars' gravity than earth's (still have it as a payload leaving earth).
Do I recall correctly that it was the nephew of one of the BWI posters who's name suggestion was picked for this mission?
BTW they're also preparing samples for a future mission to return them to earth. I haven't heard much discussion about that but I imagine they'd need a new fuel/propellant source for the return trip, even though it requires less to escape Mars' gravity than earth's (still have it as a payload leaving earth).
Do I recall correctly that it was the nephew of one of the BWI posters who's name suggestion was picked for this mission?
In a couple of months they will release a spec made helicopter to fly around the area which will be amazing.
But don’t get too excited about samples being returned. The rover is going to gather samples, do a couple experiments, then store the remainder in special containers. They have no return capabilities on this rover.
The plan is that a future craft will land nearby, retrieve the samples then fly them back. Could take up to ten years! Personally, I wouldn’t want samples that have been in a container that long. Future craft should get fresh samples.
Perseverance Rover Components - NASA Science
The Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, is based on the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover configuration, with an added science and technology toolbox. An important difference is that Perseverance can sample and cache minerals.
mars.nasa.gov
More detailed explanation:In a couple of months they will release a spec made helicopter to fly around the area which will be amazing.
But don’t get too excited about samples being returned. The rover is going to gather samples, do a couple experiments, then store the remainder in special containers. They have no return capabilities on this rover.
The plan is that a future craft will land nearby, retrieve the samples then fly them back. Could take up to ten years! Personally, I wouldn’t want samples that have been in a container that long. Future craft should get fresh samples.
Perseverance Rover Components - NASA Science
The Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, is based on the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover configuration, with an added science and technology toolbox. An important difference is that Perseverance can sample and cache minerals.
How NASA's Perseverance rover will send Martian rocks back to Earth for the first time ever
Never before have humans brought a piece of another planet back to Earth. "If it sounds complicated, it is," a top NASA scientist said. "If it sounds extreme, it most certainly is."
www.cbsnews.com
I spent a good bit of time yesterday watching a couple of programs detailing the design and building of the rover and associated equipment and the mission itself. The engineering involved is beyond impressive- I won't be around to see the end result, but the venture is certainly very interesting.
Welcome back, stranger.
They devised a very complex landing system. Unusual as I thought the mantra was to keep it simple as the more complex a system is the more likely it fails. Thankfully it worked quite well.
Should get both pics and video on Monday. Should be fun!
This is a fascinating, informative read which does not address the question of why not wait to collect Mars soil samples until back-to-Earth capabilities are available.More detailed explanation:
How NASA's Perseverance rover will send Martian rocks back to Earth for the first time ever
Never before have humans brought a piece of another planet back to Earth. "If it sounds complicated, it is," a top NASA scientist said. "If it sounds extreme, it most certainly is."
My best guess as to why: the Mars project are 100% sure that this plan will work. It’s a sure thing. It’s going to be complicated enough to shoot the samples into Mars orbit; let’s not forget that this will be the first time something like this is being attempted. It would be an unmitigated disaster if this were to fail. No, you go with the sure thing.
And, while I am doubtful this could be the case, there might be a plan to take samples ten years down the road if for some reason samples were not able to be collected this go-round. Nah, zero chance of this being the case. The samples will be collected.
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Hayabusa2 probe landed on an asteroid, took samples, returned to earth orbit to eject the samples container, then was sent on a second mission. So the technology is certainly possible. Just incredible technological accomplishments in the news these days.
Science | AAAS
www.sciencemag.org
Wow. Incredible, indeed.Hayabusa2 probe landed on an asteroid, took samples, returned to earth orbit to eject the samples container, then was sent on a second mission. So the technology is certainly possible. Just incredible technological accomplishments in the news these days.
Science | AAAS
The asteroid Ryugu, discussed in this article, is 9 million miles from Earth, compared with 147 million miles from Earth to Mars. Maybe that’s a factor. Dunno. I wish I were better at physics.
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We should get a Home and away series with them! Gates open at 8am, in 2045!
Its primarily all to do with gravity. The gravitational pull of an asteroid is near zero. The pull of a planet is much much greater. The amount of resources (namely fuel and strength of the rocket structure) to get off the surface of Mars is substantial compared to an asteroid. Also, you have an atmosphere to contend with on Mars, where an asteroid you don't. All those things add up. To send all that weight on a single rocket to Mars would require something along the lines of a Saturn V rocket, even then I'm dubious that could send enough payload to Mars, as it was maxed out on its lunar missions.
Dude, thanks for this post. Just awesome. When I read this, I said to myself, “Of course.”
Well it’s too cold up there for natural gas pipelines, so yeah
A good professor would have asked, “Well, what does Mars have that an asteroid doesn’t?”
This reminds me of how much I enjoyed my grad classes; I had some really superb teachers, Mike Boyle, Jonathan Rosenberg, Dan Rudolph (RIP).
I wouldn’t have finished if it weren’t for Mike Boyle. I’m a lucky man, I’ve lived a charmed life, came this close to failure a million times. Lucky and tough.
Mars is 200 times as far from Earth as the moon is. My way of bumping this.
I’m enjoying this thread.
I’m enjoying this thread.
Amazing accomplishment and I definitely teared up watching the coverage of the landing.
Perseverance even has a rover family sticker on its deck:
And just for laughs:
Perseverance even has a rover family sticker on its deck:
And just for laughs:
Ow that’s funny!Amazing accomplishment and I definitely teared up watching the coverage of the landing.
Perseverance even has a rover family sticker on its deck:
And just for laughs:
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