This has been a heck of a month for Mars exploration: Hope and Tianwen-1 both made it to orbit, now Perseverance has successfully landed. We’ve still got the lander part of Tianwen (several months before they try that, though) and Perseverance has a helicopter!
Good times.
My kids and I have been studying the terrestrial planets generally this school year, and Mars 2020 specifically for the past two weeks. We had a big day/celebration planned today. I admit, in the final 16 minutes, I was afraid to speak, mainly because I was afraid my voice would crack and I’d start ugly crying.
I watched the JPL clean feed, which seemed about 15 seconds ahead of NASA TV.
Hazcam pix sooner than I expected
Brian
Fantastic accomplishment once again!! Perseverance is said to be the most sophisticated craft yet. Great stuff for all the world to look forward to.
Of course a major checkout of all systems is yet to come, but the hard part is done. Given the terrific engineering that’s been done, I suspect all systems will check out.
A question I had has just been answered. The Ingenuity helicopter is carrying a color camera, so we can expect some aerial pictures at some point, though it’s main intent is just to test out the feasibility of the helicopter idea.
First pic:
Brian
Same here. We just mostly watched in awed silence.
Awesome.
I’m just learning today, the rover will be taking samples for future return to Earth sometime in the 2030’s.
I really want to know how that’s going to work.
Difficult to understand why that future mission doesn’t just carry a drill and take the samples itself when it gets there. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason though…
The drill is nonzero weight. the sample return rover has to pick up all the samples (which weigh more than the canisters on Percy, as they are now filled with stuff) Not sure if the rocket to escape mars would be on that rover or back at the landing site.
Brian
I’m watching the ongoing press conference. There is apparently imagery of the descent and landing that has never been taken before, both still images and video that will be downloaded and processed over the next few days. The video will hopefully come with audio, too, from the onboard microphones.
One thing that was mentioned several times is that this project has been in the works for eight years. The complexity of the whole mission cannot be overstated. It’s a monumental accomplishment.
Link to today’s presser, if anyone missed it and wants to see it. It doesn’t start until around the 31:00 minute mark, so you have to fast-forward to that point.
Listening to a lady speak about this today (at JPL).
The rover will take the samples, put them in a vile and then just drop that vile on the ground for later retrieval.
That just sounds bonkers to me.
It does sound like rather a vile idea.
Lol. My bad. Vial.
Better than having it land at Vail.
That would certainly be of no avail.
Current location of Percy:
Brian
I immediately visualized a small green locomotive chugging across the Martian sands.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/Thomas_and_Friends_Percy.jpg
“Percy” is just so much easier to type…
Here are details from the 1st press conference:
Brian