Feb 18, 2021 12:26 AM
Tomorrow's big event. The arrival, and completely insane autonomous robotic skycrane-landing of a huge and ambitious Mars rover, nuclear powered and as big as a car. Includes a helicopter, which will be the first thing to (ever?) perform controlled aerodynamic flight in Mars' atmosphere! (Mars' atmosphere is so thin, that's crazy too.)
Expected to happen about 3:55 PM EST, 12:55 PM PST, 20:55 UTC on Thursday Feb 18 (or slightly later, certainly until they know if it succeeded, given that Mars is light-minutes away).
https://twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/13...7780389895
Mission page
https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
How to watch online
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/...ch-online/
It will be streamed here, of course
https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive
A little video animation of what's hopefully going to happen tomorrow. It's certifiably crazy, and no, Elon didn't think it up. It's straight out of JPL, the only people on Earth who have successfully landed landers and rovers on Mars. Everyone else who has tried it (Russians, Europeans) has failed. China is set to make their own attempt in May.
The fan sites will be streaming too. NSF will be here, with the raw JPL feed and their own commentary. Link to their stream should be here when it comes up
https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight
Tim Dodd has been in South Padre Island preparing to cover Sn10's flight, and was planning to stream Perseverance, but was knocked off the air by the recent power and internet difficulties in that part of Texas. But power is back and LabPadre is back on the air (partially). So hopefully Tim will be able to do his stream too.
https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut
As for me, I'll be jumping between the streams but focusing on JPLs at the moments of terror as the thing is entering Mars' atmosphere and trying to land, while its signals are creeping towards Earth at the speed of light. By the time the data starts appearing on mission control displays, it will already be over. Either succeeded or it didn't. Excruciating tension for people who have devoted ten years of their lives to this mission. It all comes down to this.
Expected to happen about 3:55 PM EST, 12:55 PM PST, 20:55 UTC on Thursday Feb 18 (or slightly later, certainly until they know if it succeeded, given that Mars is light-minutes away).
https://twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/13...7780389895
Mission page
https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
How to watch online
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/...ch-online/
It will be streamed here, of course
https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive
A little video animation of what's hopefully going to happen tomorrow. It's certifiably crazy, and no, Elon didn't think it up. It's straight out of JPL, the only people on Earth who have successfully landed landers and rovers on Mars. Everyone else who has tried it (Russians, Europeans) has failed. China is set to make their own attempt in May.
The fan sites will be streaming too. NSF will be here, with the raw JPL feed and their own commentary. Link to their stream should be here when it comes up
https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight
Tim Dodd has been in South Padre Island preparing to cover Sn10's flight, and was planning to stream Perseverance, but was knocked off the air by the recent power and internet difficulties in that part of Texas. But power is back and LabPadre is back on the air (partially). So hopefully Tim will be able to do his stream too.
https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut
As for me, I'll be jumping between the streams but focusing on JPLs at the moments of terror as the thing is entering Mars' atmosphere and trying to land, while its signals are creeping towards Earth at the speed of light. By the time the data starts appearing on mission control displays, it will already be over. Either succeeded or it didn't. Excruciating tension for people who have devoted ten years of their lives to this mission. It all comes down to this.