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+--- Thread: Perseverance Arrival on Mars (/thread-9829.html)
Perseverance Arrival on Mars - Yazata - Feb 18, 2021
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/1362143557780389895
Mission page
https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
How to watch online
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-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.
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - Yazata - Feb 18, 2021
Good article on Perseverance
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/02/perseverance-ready-for-daring-at-jezero-crater/
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - C C - Feb 18, 2021
This kind of has the kiss of death looming over it due to the opportunity for China to gloat if its later rover landing succeeds after a NASA fail. But maybe not, since crazy tether method worked with Curiosity.
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - Yazata - Feb 18, 2021
Live nasa coverage starts here at 11:15 AM PST, 2:15 PM EST, 19:15 UTC for you Brits.
There are literally dozens of other streams covering this as well. You can find them with a web search.
Here's nasa's live coverage with all kinds of commentary. There are already 727,000 people watching this one and landing is an hour and a half off.
Here's a clean feed from JPL mission control. There are 48,000 watching this one.
Simulation synched to point in the landing intended to show desired data
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/mars2020/#/home?id=guidance_start
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - Yazata - Feb 18, 2021
Less than 11 minutes to landing! This clock indicates when telemetry is received on Earth, so landing should be over up on Mars. Whatever happened already happened and word is traveling the eleven light-minutes between Mars and Earth. Perserverance is either sitting on the surface, or smashed on the surface.
Edit: Telemetry shows entering Martian atmosphere. Experiencing plasma blackout.
Reacquisition of signal! It didn't burn up. About 16km above surface of Mars.
Good telemetry lock. Chute deploy!
Heat shield has been jettisoned.
Radar lock on the ground as Perseverance looks for a good landing spot. It has a good solution on where to land.
Skycrane has separated and has ignited its engines.
It's landed!!! The rover is down, alive and transmitting!
Perseverance is communicating data with the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter.
Crazy sky crane is two for two, believe it or not!
Cheering at JPL!
Getting first images back. These are from a wide angle 'hazard cam'. It's a low-res photo to begin with, taken through a protective transparent lens cap.
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - confused2 - Feb 18, 2021
I'd just like to thank 'America' for so generously sharing that moment and so much more. That really is the kind of world I hoped for when I was young. Long may it continue.
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - Zinjanthropos - Feb 19, 2021
(Feb 18, 2021 10:18 PM)confused2 Wrote: I'd just like to thank 'America' for so generously sharing that moment and so much more. That really is the kind of world I hoped for when I was young. Long may it continue.
Ditto. Watched it.....Fantastic
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - Yazata - Feb 19, 2021
New photos from Perseverance will be released at a press conference scheduled for 10AM PST, 1 PM EST, 18:00 UTC. (Five minutes from now!) Rumors leaking out of JPL suggest that they will be spectacular.
Post news conference edit:
They say that the next few sols (Mars days) will be devoted to running systems checks on the rover, switching its landing software with its science mission software, extending the rovers' arms and camera masts (they were safely clamped down for landing and need to be released, deploying its high-gain antenna (Perseverance is currently communicating through a low-gain antenna) and doing checks of the helicopter. They plan to slowly rotate the hi-def camera and make a panorama of the landing site. They plan to go on a short test drive sometime next week but the longer treks are a ways off. They say that they are very pleased with their landing site since it's safe and flat, but adjacent to some geologically interesting features that the scientists are already impatient to go check out.
Photos released at the press conference (all nasa photos)
This one shows the rover during the landing, hanging beneath the skycrane above the Martian surface. This cam was on the skycrane.
![[Image: 25609_1-PIA24428-1200.jpg]](https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/25609_1-PIA24428-1200.jpg)
This photo was taken from Mars orbit by the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter. It shows Perseverance beneath its parachute right about the time the skycrane detached. The ultimate landing spot is marked by a small circle.
![[Image: 25610_PIA24270-HiRISE-touchdown-annotated-1200.jpg]](https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/25610_PIA24270-HiRISE-touchdown-annotated-1200.jpg)
Closeup photo of the dirt around one of the rover's wheels. The geologists are all excited because the rocks have little holes in them. They say that there are a number of explanations for why rocks have holes (vesicles) like that on Earth, but it depends on whether it's volcanic or sedimentary rock. In the former case the holes are made by gas in liquid lava, in the latter by water dissolving soluble minerals. They say that the curiosity rover has found less volcanic rock than expected and more sedimentary rock, so this might just conceivably be signs of water in the lake that they believe once filled this crater. The goal was to land Perseverance in what is believed to be a dry lake. (The lake was billions of years ago, before multicellular life had even appeared on Earth, so if this is old sedimentary rock, it's very old.
![[Image: 25611_PIA24429-1200.jpg]](https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/25611_PIA24429-1200.jpg)
Edit2: Here's another one. It's basically the same hazard cam photo on the press conference link, but without the blurry lens cap and with more pixels and color since they weren't trying to conserve bandwidth this time. They have a whole assortment of cameras on Perseverance, one a megapixel wonder, several others spectrographic in various wavelengths. So better imagery is coming soon.
![[Image: 25612_PIA24430-panorama-1200.jpg]](https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/25612_PIA24430-panorama-1200.jpg)
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - Zinjanthropos - Feb 19, 2021
That pic of the rover hanging from skycrane should be the best candidate for The Pulitzer Prize for Photography. Don’t know how you can top it.
RE: Perseverance Arrival on Mars - Yazata - Feb 22, 2021
Another nasa briefing scheduled for 11 am PST, 2 pm EST, 19:00 UTC. They are calling it "See Mars like never before!" and are promising new photos and video.