Perseverance on June 18, with fairings designed to protect it.
NASA / Christian Mangano
The Mars Perseverance rover and the Wit helicopter They are mostly ready to fly to Mars, but technical problems mean they will have to wait to get out of this rock. On Tuesday, NASA said the rover will launch no later than July 30.
The start of the rover’s journey to Mars was originally set for July 17, but has now suffered several delays. The boost to July 30 “is due to delays in launch vehicle processing in preparation for spacecraft companion operations,” after a problem with a liquid oxygen sensor emerged during a dress test for the launch, NASA said.
The space agency attributed a previous delay to “a contamination problem on ground support lines at NASA’s Hazardous Cargo Services Facility (PHSF).” The agency released a photo of the rover packed at PHSF, where he was involved in the fairings that will protect him during launch.
The first set of delays was not a major concern as the launch period was extended until August 11. However, the overall window is critical. If NASA can’t dispatch the rover in time, it will have to wait until 2022 for its next chance, due to Earth’s position relative to Mars.
The space agency gave itself a little more room to breathe by extending the launch period until August 15. NASA said flight analysis teams “are examining whether the launch period can be extended to August.”
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Perseverance will take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with the help of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. “Almost done,” the Perseverance rover team tweeted last week.
If all goes well, Perseverance will arrive on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, to look for signs of past microbial life, drop off a helicopter, and collect samples from Mars that may one day be returned to Earth.
NASA Perseverance Rover Ready to Explore Nature on Mars
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