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Light travels from Earth to Mars for a minimum of 3 minutes and a maximum of 22 minutes. Currently, the distance between the planets is 203.5 million. km, so the travel time of the light is about 11 minutes in one direction (and the second in both, back). This means that NASA’s latest Perseverance probe will not receive any help from NASA’s control centers in the event of an unforeseen situation. Absolutely everything was planned and scheduled in advance. And the last quality control of that planning and programming will take place tonight, February 18, starting at 9:15 pm Lithuanian time.
VIDEO: Check out NASA’s Perseverance Rover Land on Mars!
Since the days when NASA space missions were carried out for the prestige of the state have been left behind, and now every dollar spent on a mission is weighed through the prism of profit, perseverance was also worth having a value. of $ 2.7 billion. Dollars. Let’s take a look at the key challenges facing this probe, which will not only expand our knowledge of Mars, but also provide us with new insights into technologies that we could use in space or on distant planets.
Technologically, the most interesting part of this mission is called Ingenuity. This is the first man-made helicopter to fly outside of Earth’s atmosphere. The key part of this task is precisely to verify the engineering capabilities, if it is possible to fly in the atmosphere of Mars, which is 100 times rarer than on Earth, using means of propulsion without jet.
The Ingenuity probe will reach the surface of Mars connecting it to the bottom (“abdomen”) of the main Martian Perseverance. This plane is expected to be able to fly at least several times in the first month after landing Perseverance.
Perhaps a little less “romantic” and less visually appealing, Perseverance’s main scientific purpose is to collect samples from Mars and prepare them for transport from Mars to Earth.
The default landing site for the Perseverance probe is the crater of the lake; from orbit it appears to be a very favorable place for life on Mars. The probe that landed in the crater will have four main tasks: geological (analyzing the rocks and landscape at the landing site and giving people more knowledge about the history of the area based on that data); astrobiological (to determine if the landing area was ever suitable for life and to search for traces of life that once existed); sampling (finding and collecting Martian soil samples that may be of scientific interest and preparing those samples for transport to Earth); preparation for the arrival of humans (to test technologies that may be necessary for human survival on Mars at some point in the future).
It should be noted that Perseverance is the first NASA probe whose main task is to determine whether microbial life ever existed on Mars in the past. The task of previous probes was only to determine whether conditions in Mars’ past were suitable for life (and their response was more positive than negative). The probe will also analyze the climatic conditions of the Red Planet and assess whether the atmospheric conditions of Mars were suitable for life in the past. Perseverance will also have to describe the geological features of Mars, to tell more about the processes that led to the formation of the crust and soil of Mars over time. Above all, this probe will look for traces of rocks that require water and, in particular, the existence of organic compounds necessary for life in such rocks.
In preparation for the arrival of humans on Mars, Perseverance will test whether it is possible to produce fuel and other resources necessary for survival from local resources, and will analyze the challenges of the Martian atmosphere that will need to be taken into account when planning for the long term. term habitats of the colonists of Mars.
But for all these tasks to be accomplished, the Perseverance probe must be successful tonight and its descent must be as smooth as planned on Earth.
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