NASA's astrobiology rover Perseverance makes historic Mars landing

[webfact]

NASA's astrobiology rover Perseverance makes historic Mars landing

By Steve Gorman

 

FILE PHOTO: NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, the biggest, heaviest, most advanced vehicle sent to the Red Planet by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is seen on Mars in an undated illustration provided by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NASA's science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.

 

Mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero Crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed.

 

The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, covering 293 million miles (472 million km) before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 miles per hour (19,000 km per hour) to begin its approach to touchdown on the planet's surface.

 

The spacecraft's self-guided descent and landing during a complex series of maneuvers that NASA dubbed "the seven minutes of terror" stands as the most elaborate and challenging feat in the annals of robotic spaceflight.

 

"It really is the beginning of a new era," NASA's associate administrator for science, Thomas Zurbuchen, said earlier in the day during NASA's webcast of the event.

 

The landing represented the riskiest part of two-year, $2.7 billion endeavor whose primary aim is to search for possible fossilized signs of microbes that may have flourished on Mars some 3 billion years ago, when the fourth planet from the sun was warmer, wetter and potentially hospitable to life.

 

Scientists hope to find biosignatures embedded in samples of ancient sediments that Perseverance is designed to extract from Martian rock for future analysis back on Earth - the first such specimens ever collected by humankind from another planet.

 

Two subsequent Mars missions are planned to retrieve the samples and return them to NASA in the next decade.

 

Thursday's landing came as a triumph for a pandemic-weary United States in the grips of economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 public health crisis.

 

The first images arrive moments after NASA?s Perseverance Mars rover spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, U.S. February 18, 2021. NASA TV/Handout via REUTERS

 

SEARCH FOR ANCIENT LIFE

NASA scientists have described Perseverance as the most ambitious of nearly 20 U.S. missions to Mars dating back to the Mariner spacecraft's 1965 fly-by.

 

Larger and packed with more instruments than the four Mars rovers preceding it, Perseverance is set to build on previous findings that liquid water once flowed on the Martian surface and that carbon and other minerals altered by water and considered precurors to the evolution of life were present.

 

Perseverance's payload also includes demonstration projects that could help pave the way for eventual human exploration of Mars, including a device to convert the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into pure oxygen.

 

The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, covering 293 million miles (472 million km) before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 miles per hour (19,000 km per hour) to begin its approach to touchdown on the planet's surface.

 

The box-shaped tool, the first built to extract a natural resource of direct use to humans from an extraterrestrial environment, could prove invaluable for future human life support on Mars and for producing rocket propellant to fly astronauts home.

 

Another experimental prototype carried by Perseverance is a miniature helicopter designed to test the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. If successful, the 4-pound (1.8-kg) helicopter could lead to low-altitude aerial surveillance of distant worlds, officials said.

 

The daredevil nature of the rover's descent to the Martian surface, at a site that NASA described as both tantalizing to scientists and especially hazardous for landing, was a momentous achievement in itself.

 

The multi-stage spacecraft carrying the rover soared into the top of Martian atmosphere at nearly 16 times the speed of sound on Earth, angled to produce aerodynamic lift while jet thrusters adjusted its trajectory.

 

A jarring, supersonic parachute inflation further slowed the descent, giving way to deployment of a rocket-powered "sky crane" vehicle that flew to a safe landing spot, lowered the rover on tethers, then flew off to crash a safe distance away.

 

Perseverance's immediate predecessor, the rover Curiosity, landed in 2012 and remains in operation, as does the stationary lander InSight, which arrived in 2018 to study the deep interior of Mars.

 

Last week, separate probes launched by the United Arab Emirates and China reached Martian orbit. NASA has three Mars satellites still in orbit, along with two from the European Space Agency.

 

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Will Dunham)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-19

 

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[Gumballl]

I watched coverage of this event on NASA TV. One of the announcers made a comment that it (currently) takes 11 minutes for radio signals to go from Earth to Mars (and obviously the same time the other way around). Naturally, the time delay varies, depending on the distance between Earth and Mars.

 

A few (maybe 5) minutes after the rover landed, it beamed back an image of the surface to Earth. How was that possible?

[Tug]

Yeppieeeeee!!!very cool I hope she has a long productive life span!!

[Samui Bodoh]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The multi-stage spacecraft carrying the rover soared into the top of Martian atmosphere at nearly 16 times the speed of sound on Earth, angled to produce aerodynamic lift while jet thrusters adjusted its trajectory.

 

A jarring, supersonic parachute inflation further slowed the descent, giving way to deployment of a rocket-powered "sky crane" vehicle that flew to a safe landing spot, lowered the rover on tethers, then flew off to crash a safe distance away.

When I read something like this I am put into a state of awe at what Humanity can accomplish when there is a confluence of Will and Resources. These scientists flew a ship billions of kilometers, created a way to shimmy down through an alien atmosphere and gently deposited a vehicle on the ground in a specific location. Think of the magnificent accomplishment that is; all over the planet this morning, some humans are backing out of their driveways and hitting their trash cans!

 

It also gives me great hope for Humanity in dealing with the Corona virus and other future challenges; is there any limitation that Humanity faces when it focuses its brain-power and a proper amount of resources at a problem?

 

The above was meant as a rhetorical question, but even as I typed, I knew the unfortunate answer; yeah, there are limitations because we as a species can't get our collective Thumbs out of our collective Asses. What might we accomplish if we put our collective minds to issues rather than indulge in petty nationalism, petty bickering and just plain stupid conflict based on nothing?

 

We as a species are either destined for truly great wonders beyond what is currently even imaginable or we are destined to kill ourselves off over some stupid, inconsequential, petty reason. The truly sad thing is that the latter is the more likely outcome.

 

Oh Humanity, I weep for thee!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Samui Bodoh
Lack of Coffee

[mikesil]

 

I'm not believing it until they take me along and let me see for myself.

[CharlieH]

Troll comments removed.

[Sujo]

2 hours ago, Gumballl said:

I watched coverage of this event on NASA TV. One of the announcers made a comment that it (currently) takes 11 minutes for radio signals to go from Earth to Mars (and obviously the same time the other way around). Naturally, the time delay varies, depending on the distance between Earth and Mars.

 

A few (maybe 5) minutes after the rover landed, it beamed back an image of the surface to Earth. How was that possible?

Mars has faster pigeons.

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, mikesil said:

 

I'm not believing it until they take me along and let me see for myself.

You have my best wishes for a safe journey.

[Chomper Higgot]

Stunning achievement.

 

 

[wombat]

Science fiction in real time in my lifetime...the terraforming of Mars begins when the machine to produce oxygen is switched on...reminds me of War of the World's only reversed. 

 

[nobodysfriend]

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

It also gives me great hope for Humanity in dealing with the Corona virus and other future challenges; is there any limitation that Humanity faces when it focuses its brain-power and a proper amount of resources at a problem?

Everything is possible if we , as a species , bundle our energy and knowledge to build a better world ...

But , even as the scientists clearly show us the way to go , the politicians are too blind and too ' business - orientated ' to realize that it is 5 min after 12 o'clock already .

The ultimate goal is simply to survive for us as a species and , with that , to enable our further evolution in time ...

And that by living on a planet that still has a functioning biosphere . If that is too severely damaged or destroyed , life will be a struggle against the forces of nature that , once completely out of balance ,  become an enemy to human life ...

Intelligence is to take and make the best when it is time for it , and to try to avoid any damage to the natural systems we are living in and with ...

A little late for this , but not completely too late yet .

But the time for action is now .

It should have been done 20yrs ago already .

No more fossile fuels , no more production of toxic chemicals in the food chain ( insecticides ) , no more destruction of whole ecosystems , ( Pantanal ) no more non - degradable plastic ... but that is an utopia . History has taught us that humans are a destructive race , who's tribes ( Nations ) , always seek advantage over each other .

I doubt that there will ever be the possibility that all people , ( Nations , ethnic groups , races etc ) will ' pull on the same string ' to make things better for all , without a catastrophy happening before .

One thing is for sure ... if we , as a species , do not find a way that enables us to survive in a biosphere that is worth living in , we will all be losers and become extinct .

Edited February 19, 2021 by nobodysfriend

[bunnydrops]

4 hours ago, Gumballl said:

I watched coverage of this event on NASA TV. One of the announcers made a comment that it (currently) takes 11 minutes for radio signals to go from Earth to Mars (and obviously the same time the other way around). Naturally, the time delay varies, depending on the distance between Earth and Mars.

 

A few (maybe 5) minutes after the rover landed, it beamed back an image of the surface to Earth. How was that possible?

I am sure you have figured it out by now. But the lander was already on the surface before we were getting the data that it had entered the atmosphere. In short, everything you saw had already happened, we just didn't know it yet.

[nobodysfriend]

17 minutes ago, wombat said:

Science fiction in real time in my lifetime...the terraforming of Mars begins when the machine to produce oxygen is switched on...reminds me of War of the World's only reversed. 

 

Terraforming ... the ones who can do this will become god ... but from the initial act of implanting life forms on a planet that has none , to the final result of the creation of an atmosphere and biosphere that creates life itself , evolution usually takes a few billion years to do that ...

Who has the time to wait for that ...?

Edited February 19, 2021 by nobodysfriend

[Tropicalevo]

53 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

the politicians are too blind and too ' business - orientated

I think that the main missing word is 'greedy'.

[edwinchester]

4 hours ago, Gumballl said:

I watched coverage of this event on NASA TV. One of the announcers made a comment that it (currently) takes 11 minutes for radio signals to go from Earth to Mars (and obviously the same time the other way around). Naturally, the time delay varies, depending on the distance between Earth and Mars.

 

A few (maybe 5) minutes after the rover landed, it beamed back an image of the surface to Earth. How was that possible?

Signal that it landed was delayed 11 minutes. 5 minutes after the delayed landing single the pics were received so they would actually be 16 minutes after the actual landing.

That's my understanding of how it worked.

[TKDfella]

Congratulations! As I have said on another similar thread, we live in fantastic times. The SS, and the Universe beyond, awaits us with all its wonders, dangers and mysteries. Truly the beginning of a pioneering era. But if we take our greed etc. with us it could be all over in a short time. We have so much going for us. Within the next few decades humanity could have found solutions to the many problems that will confront future astronauts; building structures to start colonies and begin testing Einsteins Relativity theories for long journeys.

[Stargeezr]

I am happy that this landing was another success for NASA.  I am also glad

that I am too old to be wanting to go to Mars on the first 2 human flights to

the planet, as they will be one way trips. Radiation is the main problem. 2 months of it

on the way to Mars, means that you will not live long enough to make a return trip to

Earth.  That is something to think about for the dreamers.  I am waiting to see the renewed

trips to the moon, and a colony being built there.  That is the next step in the Mars saga.

Geezer

[jobsworth]

6 hours ago, Gumballl said:

I watched coverage of this event on NASA TV. One of the announcers made a comment that it (currently) takes 11 minutes for radio signals to go from Earth to Mars (and obviously the same time the other way around). Naturally, the time delay varies, depending on the distance between Earth and Mars.

 

A few (maybe 5) minutes after the rover landed, it beamed back an image of the surface to Earth. How was that possible?

Confusing isn't it?

Better to say 16 minutes after the rover landed....

This is not another conspiracy theory.

TV was my first confirmation of a successful landing.

All the other web sites i visit kept talking about debris.

 

[Eric Loh]

Great achievement. Lets not forget that the NASA team has participation from other European countries and the mission members are children of immigrants from a host of Asian and European countries. 

[Morch]

6 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

When I read something like this I am put into a state of awe at what Humanity can accomplish when there is a confluence of Will and Resources. These scientists flew a ship billions of kilometers, created a way to shimmy down through an alien atmosphere and gently deposited a vehicle on the ground in a specific location. Think of the magnificent accomplishment that is; all over the planet this morning, some humans are backing out of their driveways and hitting their trash cans!

 

It also gives me great hope for Humanity in dealing with the Corona virus and other future challenges; is there any limitation that Humanity faces when it focuses its brain-power and a proper amount of resources at a problem?

 

The above was meant as a rhetorical question, but even as I typed, I knew the unfortunate answer; yeah, there are limitations because we as a species can't get our collective Thumbs out of our collective Asses. What might we accomplish if we put our collective minds to issues rather than indulge in petty nationalism, petty bickering and just plain stupid conflict based on nothing?

 

We as a species are either destined for truly great wonders beyond what is currently even imaginable or we are destined to kill ourselves off over some stupid, inconsequential, petty reason. The truly sad thing is that the latter is the more likely outcome.

 

Oh Humanity, I weep for thee!

 

 

 

 

 

Well, we (as a species) started out with clans, than villages, tribes, towns, city states, countries, empires and now the inklings of international frameworks. Generally speaking, the movement is for ever larger groupings, more cooperation. There are setbacks, there are push backs, and it often seems, at a present given set time, that things are otherwise. But taking a historical view, that's what people do.

[nobodysfriend]

3 hours ago, TKDfella said:

Einsteins Relativity theories for long journeys

Einstein said too , that it will be impossible to travel at the speed of light or faster ..

If even the light emitted by stars in our own Galaxy needs hundreds or thousands of yrs to reach us , how can it become possible for people to ever reach a solar system that is hundreds of light years away ? Only in a cyrogenic  , (deep frozen ) state , that might become possible ...?

But , out there , there are many things we do not yet know about ... may be there is a ' wormhole ' or a shortcut of some kind we can take ...?

Anyway , I think that there is a 5th dimension , a spiritual one , that is not bound to the other 4 dimensions ...

My purely hypothetical nonsense , of course ... no proof at all for this , but some suspicions remain ... I will know when I die .

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by nobodysfriend

[KannikaP]

Aree they going to send another spacecraft to Mars in ten years to retrieve this one. If so, HOW please?   Thunderbird 2!

Edited February 19, 2021 by KannikaP

[Phoenix Rising]

Fantastic achievement by NASA, really exited about what this mission can discover! Hopefully they'll get their chopper "airborne" for the first off-planet flight.

The landing was the big hurdle but it's incredible what one can achieve when sticking to the metric system

[rabas]

I  sat powerless at my computer watching NASA scientists and engineers sit powerless as they watched everything unfold long after the craft landed, or not. That's just astounding.

 

Next up, Elon Musk will successfully land his massive starship next week.  When ask how Starship, which requires GPS, could possibly navigate on Mars, he said they will install a starlink GPS around Mars first.

 

The NASA flight controller calling out the steps was an Indian woman. Later a Chinese lady talked about designing the helicopter, Mars' equivalent of the Wright brother's first aircraft. And Elon Musk  is from South Africa.  That's America and the world. The future is coming fast. 

 

[PETERTHEEATER]

10 hours ago, Gumballl said:

I watched coverage of this event on NASA TV. One of the announcers made a comment that it (currently) takes 11 minutes for radio signals to go from Earth to Mars (and obviously the same time the other way around). Naturally, the time delay varies, depending on the distance between Earth and Mars.

 

A few (maybe 5) minutes after the rover landed, it beamed back an image of the surface to Earth. How was that possible?

The reduced gravity of Mars offers less resistance to radio waves and they accelerate more quickly to planet Earth......????

[onthedarkside]

A post with a misleading weblink has been removed.

[TKDfella]

5 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

Einstein said too , that it will be impossible to travel at the speed of light or faster ..

If even the light emitted by stars in our own Galaxy needs hundreds or thousands of yrs to reach us , how can it become possible for people to ever reach a solar system that is hundreds of light years away ? Only in a cyrogenic  , (deep frozen ) state , that might become possible ...?

But , out there , there are many things we do not yet know about ... may be there is a ' wormhole ' or a shortcut of some kind we can take ...?

Anyway , I think that there is a 5th dimension , a spiritual one , that is not bound to the other 4 dimensions ...

My purely hypothetical nonsense , of course ... no proof at all for this , but some suspicions remain ... I will know when I die .

 

I wasn't thinking about travelling at c or > c but fractions of c thereof. For example Neptune is about 4.2 Light hours from the Sun (give or take depending on position) which is about 30.4 times that for the Earth. Because of the the orbital distances are constantly changing let's just say an average distance from Earth to Neptune is around 4.4x10⁹ km. At 0.001 c this would mean a journey of about 6 months. At this low level we wouldn't even have to worry about SR time dilation effects (1 hour on the ship would correspond, roughly, to about 1.0000005 hours on Earth). Some of the probes on present missions travel much faster than this so we know there is no problem as far as instruments are concerned. But we'll need much bigger craft for human travel and better energy/thrust values than we currently have. Several means of propulsion are under experiment at present so within the next decade or so we should have an engine that has a good energy/thrust ratio. With these 0.01 c might be achievable and again special relativistic effects will be hardly noticed.

[Kelsall]

Many thanks to President Trump for this success. ????

 

 

Trump’s space policy reaches for Mars and the stars

 

https://spacenews.com/trumps-space-policy-reaches-for-mars-and-the-stars/

Edited February 19, 2021 by Kelsall

[Moonlover]

15 hours ago, Gumballl said:

I watched coverage of this event on NASA TV. One of the announcers made a comment that it (currently) takes 11 minutes for radio signals to go from Earth to Mars (and obviously the same time the other way around). Naturally, the time delay varies, depending on the distance between Earth and Mars.

 

A few (maybe 5) minutes after the rover landed, it beamed back an image of the surface to Earth. How was that possible?

Because it took 11 mins for the 'confirmation of landing' signal to arrive, then a further 5 mins for the image signal to arrive. Simple really.

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Moonlover

[Morch]

53 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

Many thanks to President Trump for this success. ????

 

 

Trump’s space policy reaches for Mars and the stars

 

https://spacenews.com/trumps-space-policy-reaches-for-mars-and-the-stars/

 

To covfefe and beyond!