NASA to send Perseverance, a new trundle bot, and Ingenuity, the first interplanetary helicopter, to sniff out life on Mars in July
- Reference: 1592483111
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/18/nasa_to_send_perseverance_a/
- Source link:
The Mars 2020 mission is the first step towards the space agency’s goal of obtaining samples of rock and soil and preparing them for return back to Earth. "Fifty-one years ago today, NASA was deep into final preparations for the first Moon landing," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine [1]said on Wednesday.
"Today we stand at the threshold of another monumental moment in exploration: sample collection at Mars. As we celebrate the heroes of Apollo 11 today, future generations may well recognize the women and men of Perseverance - not only for what they will achieve 100 million miles from home, but for what they were able to accomplish on this world on the road to launch."
The goal is to send Perseverance to Jezero, one of the largest and oldest craters on the Red Planet, which scientists believe was once filled with water. The rocks there are about three-and-a-half to four billion years old, Katie Stack Morgan, a deputy scientist working on the mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, estimated during a live NASA broadcast.
"Jezero is the best preserved delta, where rivers deposited rocks and sand," she said. There may also be carbonate minerals along the inner rim of the crater left over as the water evaporated.
The SUV-sized rover will drill into the surface and place the samples into tubes. These tubes will be grouped together and scattered across Mars for another rover to collect and bring back into a spacecraft that will eventually fly back to Earth to return the samples. The whole effort may take up to 10 years and requires multiple vehicles and the help of the European Space Agency.
Lori Glaze, the director of NASA's Planetary Division, said Mars 2020 is an astrobiology mission and is "the search to see if life exists anywhere beyond Earth." NASA is looking for signs of ancient microbes in the layers of Martian rocks.
Stack Morgan pointed out that scientists studying early life on Earth look at similar structures like stromatolites, where the textures and chemical composition, show that they could only have been created by microorganisms.
Perseverance will also deploy a small robotic drone named Ingenuity to scout out areas that look interesting for the rover to drive to. It'll be the first helicopter to fly on any planet other than Earth.
[2]Youtube Video
The one ton rover, however, is the main instrument in the mission. It comes equipped with various cameras and instruments, including one that can convert carbon dioxide to oxygen to see if it’s possible to use as a potential fuel reserve for Martian astronauts one day.
Perseverance is also the cleanest system to be launched to the Red Planet. Scientists are going to be looking for trace chemicals from billions of years ago, and must be careful not to contaminate the vehicle with any material from Earth.
The launch date is 20 July. NASA is taking advantage of a time window that ends on 11 August, where both Mars and Earth’s orbits are aligned. This is something that happens every 26 months. Bridenstine said that it was important that NASA completes the launch by this time, as waiting another two years or so would jeopardize the mission.
If all goes to plan, Perseverance will land in the Jezero crater on 18 February 2021. It'll come into the Martian atmosphere protected by a heat shield and then deploy the world's largest supersonic-rated parachute.
Once it gets closer to the surface, the parachute and then the heat shield are ejected and the delivery sled is deployed. A rocket platform with eight hydrazine thrusters will hover over the surface and lower the rover gently to the surface on cables, then detach and crash at a safe distance. It sounds bizarre but it worked well last time.
"The mission has one launch, 314 million miles of interplanetary space and seven minutes of terror to get safely onto the surface of Mars," said Glaze. "When we see the landscape at Jezero Crater for the first time and we truly begin to realize the scientific bounty before us, the fun really begins." ®
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[1] https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7682
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RQWv1ybsjM
[3] https://go.theregister.com/tl/1956/-8475/the-forrester-new-wave-public-cloud-enterprise-container-platforms-q3-2019?td=wptl1956
10 years? With that time-frame, wouldn't it make sense to have the collection be part of a manned mission?
If we're going anyway, it'd make sense to not double up on the trips.
*If* we're going, that is.
I would hope that we would at least have unmanned missions that go to Mars and return to earth before we try sending any people. Unless the first manned mission is intended to be a one way trip.
The black helicopter icon seemed appropriate given the video.
If we're sending humans then you probably don't want them anywhere near samples which you're worried about possibly being biologically contaminated.
"When we see the landscape at Jezero Crater for the first time"
For about seven minutes...
Re: "When we see the landscape at Jezero Crater for the first time"
... before the area is covered with a green mist ...
Re: "When we see the landscape at Jezero Crater for the first time"
...or a red weed.
Interplanetary Hellicopter
Some achievement that!
Re: Interplanetary Hellicopter
The rotors will have to be larger to compensate for the thinner atmosphere but not proportionally larger because of the reduced gravity on Mars.
We know they keep a duplicate rover on Earth so they can test it. I don't know how they can replicate the conditions to test a Mars helicopter. Perhaps they will run it in a semi-vacuum while suspended on a counterweight to simulate the reduced gravity?
As all scientific and engineering knowledge on the planet is contained in the heads of the El Reg commentards perhaps someone could enlighten me.
Re: Interplanetary Hellicopter
If I recall correctly, Mars has an atmosphere a couple of orders of magnitude thinner than earth's and martian gravity is something like 4/5ths of earth's. The difference in gravity is a lot less than the difference in air density, so you need to push a much larger volume rate of martian air down to attain lift than you would on earth, so you either need a big rotor (unwieldy and difficult to make strong) or you need to spin a smaller one very, very fast, which is almost certainly easier to do. The rotor would need a cross section designed with that in mind. (i.e the aerofoil section needs to be different for different air densities and volume flow rates)
Re: Interplanetary Hellicopter
Mars gravity is approximately 1/3 g
Re: Interplanetary Hellicopter
Oops, I should have typed 2/5ths... It's slightly closer to that than 1/3rd...
Re: Interplanetary Hellicopter
"so you need to push a much larger volume rate of martian air down to attain lift"
Could we send Trump? He's got lots of hot air...
Re: Interplanetary Hellicopter
My guess would be something like that: there are big vacuum (near-vacuum) chambers I think.
World's largest supersonic-rated parachute
Which world? Earth or Mars?
Perhaps you should have said "Worlds' largest...."
Can't see the wood for the trees?
I guess if nothing else, Ingenuity should be great for finding the first tree to be discovered beyond the Earth by the usual drone search technique of crashing into it...
Bender was here
For all of humanity's research and knowledge, all we can decisively conclude is Mars is a planet entirely populated by robots. Furthermore, as the robots cease to function there is compelling evidence the robot population is being replenished from a neighboring planet.
Perseverance, really?
Ingenuity is a pretty good name for the helicopter. Spirit is a brilliant name for a rover. Opportunity. Yep great. Even Curiosity is pretty damn good. But Perseverance?
Inspirational it is not.
Can I go with it to Mars ?