It’s been a long way, but NASA’s Perseverance rover is ready for its journey to Mars. The agency packed the robot into its payload fairing and hooked it up to an Atlas V rocket this week. Now all we need is favorable weather and the last Mars explorer will head to the red planet.
NASA delivered the rover to the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 on July 7. Engineers lifted the payload to the top of the 129-foot (39-meter) Atlas V rocket, physically securing it and connecting the electronic connections. These connections will remain in place until about an hour after launch, when the second stage releases Perseverance on its way to Mars.
NASA has spent the past few years designing and building Perseverance, which is based on the successful Curiosity rover. However, the engineering team incorporated some important lessons from NASA’s latest Mars rover. For example, Curiosity’s wheels have suffered a lot of damage from unexpectedly pointed Martian rocks. So the Perseverance wheels have a stronger aluminum surface with titanium elastic spokes.
The coronavirus pandemic has slowed progress in Perseverance, and there was some concern that NASA might lose the launch window. Earth and Mars are only close to each other every few years (from Earth), so a delay could have delayed the mission until 2022. NASA was able to push the launch window until August 15 from the original limit of the August 11. That should provide enough time for the final test with enough time to put the rocket on the launch pad.
While the official launch date is not set, NASA has already chosen a landing date: February 18, 2021. Meeting a specific landing date helps mission managers plan specific conditions like surface lighting. and the position of the satellites. Perseverance will land in Jezero Crater, which was chosen because it was probably a lake in the planet’s distant past. Jezero Crater has ancient clay layers, a river delta, and even volcanic debris. It really is the ideal place for Perseverance to study the geological history of the planet while looking for signs of life.
Perseverance will also carry the Mars Helicopter drone – NASA hopes this robot can explore the terrain and save Perseverance at some point. However, it is officially just a technology demo. The rover also has a sample storage system that will pack materials for possible collection and return to Earth on a future mission.
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