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- NASA’s Perseverance rover and the Mars 2020 mission have just marked a major milestone on their way to the Red Planet.
- The spacecraft has passed the midpoint on its route to Mars and is still underway for a landing in February 2021.
- The rover and its companion helicopter are healthy and well.
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission barely lifted off in time for its trip to Mars. The window for firing a payload at the Red Planet was closing fast as NASA finally managed to send its Perseverance vehicle and the Ingenuity helicopter from Mars skyward. Now, after months of travel, the mission has reached a major milestone and you didn’t even have to do anything to get it done.
As NASA notes in its latest mission update, the Perseverance rover mission just passed the 146,300,000-mile mark on its journey to Mars. That means it has reached its midpoint and is now closer to its rendezvous with Mars than it is to its own home planet, following the same path in reverse.
The mission itself is sure to reveal many of the Red Planet’s secrets to eager scientists, but before you can actually do that, you have to get to Mars and land safely. By monitoring it every step of the way, NASA obviously has a lot of interest in its exact position in space at any given point. Now that you have finished half of your one-way trip to Mars, excitement for the Mars 2020 mission is growing rapidly.
“At 1:40 pm Pacific Time today, our spacecraft will have as many miles on its metaphorical rearview mirror as it will on its metaphorical windshield,” Julie Kangas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. “While I don’t think there’s cake, especially since most of us work from home, it’s still a pretty good milestone. Next stop, Jezero crater. “
It is important to note that while the rover is in the middle of its journey, that does not mean that it is smack in the middle of the two worlds. Because our planet and Mars are constantly moving around the Sun, the journey is not in a straight line. In reality, the rover is much closer to Mars (about 18 million miles) than it is to Earth (more than 26 million miles). So in terms of how far the rover is from Earth, it’s long past that midpoint.
The rover is scheduled to land on Mars in February, at which point it will undergo a series of tests to ensure its instruments are working as intended and then begin its scientific mission in earnest. Along with the rover, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter will also have its time to shine, and if all goes according to plan, it will become the first powered aircraft to fly to the skies of another planet.
Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games for the past decade, covering the latest news and trends in virtual reality, wearable devices, smartphones, and future technology. Most recently, Mike served as a technology editor at The Daily Dot, and has been featured in USA Today, Time.com, and in many other print and web media. His love of reporting is second only to his addiction to games.
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