The March 2020 Perseverance Mission kicks off Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 30th. NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System tool allows you to track the spacecraft in real time as it makes its way to Mars for a landing on February 18, 2021. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
A crisply rendered web application lets you see where the office is March The 2020 mission is currently underway as it makes its way to the Red Planet for a landing on February 18, 2021.
Last time we saw NASAThe Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission was on July 30, 2020, as it disappeared into the black of deep space on a trajectory for Mars. But with NASA’s eyes on the solar system, you can follow in real time as the most sophisticated human rover – and the Ingenuity Mars helicopter that travels with it – travels millions of miles over the next six months to Jezero Crater.
“Eyes on the Solar System visualizes the same trajectory data that the navigation team uses to plot the course of Perseverance to Mars,” said Fernando Abilleira, the Mars 2020 design and navigation manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “If you want to join us on our journey, then this is the place to be.”
Give the Mars 2020 Perseverance spaceship a spin. Fully interactive, Eyes on the Solar System lets you not only track it in real time as it travels to the Red Planet. Dozens of controls on pop-up menus allow you to not only customize what you see – from far right “on board.” Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech
Eyes not only show you the distance between the Red Planet and the spaceship at this very moment. You can also fly formation with Mars 2020 or check the relative speed between Mars and Earth, or, say, the dwarf planet Pluto.
“With all of our orbital possessions around Mars, as well as curiosity and InSight on their surface, there is constantly new data and images about the Red Planet,” said Jon Nelson, Visual Technology and Applications Development Supervisor at JPL. “Essentially, if you haven’t seen Mars through Eyes on the solar system lately, you haven’t seen Mars.”
Thousands of controls on pop-up menus allow you to customize not only what you see – from far right “on board” a spaceship – but also how you see it: Choose the 3D mode, and all you need is a few reds -cyan anaglyph glasses for a more immersive experience.
You also do not have to stop at Mars. You can travel through the solar system and even through time. The website does not only use real-time data and images from NASA‘s fleet of spacecraft, it is also populated with NASA data dating back to 1950 and projected until 2050. Location, motion, and appearance are based on predicted and reconstructed mission data.
While exploring, take a deeper dive into our home planet with Eyes on the Earth and travel to distant worlds with Eyes on ExoPlanets.
