28.02.2021
How did NASA’s Martian rover come to land in a crater named after a tiny Balkan village?
The world was excited by the news last week that NASA’s Perseverance rover had successfully landed in a Martian crater. The rover will now set about collecting samples from what scientists say was an ancient lake fed by a river. The name of this exotic Martian crater is Jezero.
As a South Slavic linguist, I immediately recognised the word. In several former Yugoslav countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, “jezero” (pronounced “yeh-zeh-ro”, with the stress on the first syllable) means lake. Fair enough — but why a Balkan lake on Mars?
The task of providing names for places of interest on Mars falls to the International Astronomical Union (IAU). They apparently named the Martian crater Jezero in 2007, well before earthlings had paid any attention.
I later discovered the name was not, in fact, intended simply as a generic “lake”, but refers to a specific village called Jezero. With a population around 500, it is located in western Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is very near a river-fed lake called Veliko Plivsko Jezero, or Great Plivsko Lake.
Famous on Mars
According to the Balkan Insight news service, the mayor of Jezero first learned of NASA’s plans in a letter from the US ambassador in Bosnia and Herzegovina, informing her the village and its name were to be honoured by the spacecraft landing in the Jezero crater.
The villagers apparently first dismissed this as fake news. But, to their later amazement, people all over the world have now been learning to pronounce Jezero properly.
The landing was broadcast live at the village’s only school, with the Balkan Insight reporter describing the villagers as “star-struck” and justifiably proud of their connection to the mission.
There was also cautious optimism about the prosperity that might flow from tourists discovering their sleepy hamlet (at least after the pandemic). Famous on Mars, might Jezero be celebrated on Earth as well?
Earthly tensions
The alternative to be avoided, one hopes, is that a minor Balkan conflict breaks out over language and designated names. Every one of the former Yugoslav countries can claim the word “jezero” in their respective dictionaries. And any traveller to the Balkans knows the region is rich with lakes.
But only one village carries this generic word as its name. Was it politically advisable for one village in the Serb-dominated entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be singled out? For many, this part of the country is still associated with the nationalism and ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian war in the 1990s.
How would the members of other communities in the country — Bosniaks (the country’s Muslim population) and Croats — respond? Could they support the Serbs of Jezero receiving such positive media coverage?
As my book about the break-up of the Serbo-Croatian languageexplored, language rifts in the Balkans are endemic and have long been both a symptom of ethnic animosity and a cause for inflaming it.
Will people quibble over whether the crater is named for the village or for its nearby lake, or any lake within the region? Or should all who say “jezero” feel proud the word is now in the global lexicon?
Space and time
During the time of Tito’s rule in Yugoslavia, such matters would not have been as contentious, since many people believed the dominant common language of the country was Serbo-Croatian.
Ethno-nationalism was forbidden and people mostly got along. However, since the violent break-up of Yugoslavia, people in the newly independent states now speak separate languages: Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian.
Over the years, speakers of the four languages have slowly drifted apart, but they all agree a lake is called “jezero”. Further complications arise with peoples and governments even further afield. The Slovenes and Czechs also say “jezero”, and the Macedonian and Bulgarian form is the almost identical “ezero”.
Any similarity between the landscape around Jezero in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the crater with the same name on Mars may end with the name. And I doubt the scientists at NASA or the IAU ever considered the potential implications of using a common word shared by so many nations to name an important site on Mars.
But, as we know, words have power. It would be a shame if a distant, silent crater on another planet caused envy and resentment here on Earth. So far, however, the political situation in the Balkans remains almost as calm as that on Mars, and that is cause for hope.
Quelle: The Conversation
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Update: 1.03.2021
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Testing Proves Its Worth with Successful Mars Parachute Deployment
Test. Test again. Test again.
Testing spacecraft components prior to flight is vital for a successful mission.
Rarely do you get a do-over with a spacecraft after it launches especially those bound for another planet. You need to do everything possible to get it right the first time.
Three successful sounding rocket missions from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in 2017 and 2018 to test a supersonic parachute proved their worth with the successful landing of the Perseverance mission on the red plant.
After a 203-day journey traversing 293 million miles, the supersonic parachutes, designed to slow the rover’s descent to the planet’s surface, successfully deployed and inflated leading to the smooth touchdown of Perseverance.
Perseverance Landing: Video from Mars
“This mission required us to design and build a 72-ft parachute that could survive inflating in a Mach 2 wind in about half a second. This is an extraordinary engineering challenge, but one that was absolutely necessary for the mission,” said Ian Clark, the test’s technical lead from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “To ensure they worked at Mars under those harsh conditions, we had to test our parachute designs here at Earth first. Replicating the Martian environment meant that we needed to get our payload half way to the edge of space and going twice the speed of sound. Sounding rockets were critical to our testing and ultimately our landing on Mars.”
The NASA team tested the parachute three times in Mars-relevant conditions, using Black Brant IX sounding rockets. The final test flight exposed the chute to a 67,000-pound (300,000- Newton) load — the highest ever survived by a supersonic parachute and about 85% higher than what the mission's chute was expected to encounter during deployment in Mars' atmosphere.
Testing a Parachute for Mars video
“When the spacecraft successfully touched down last week it was a great feeling of accomplishment for the parachute testing team,” said Giovanni Rosanova, chief of the NASA Sounding Rockets Program Office at Wallops. “Placing the test component in the right conditions with a sounding rocket was challenging and the importance of the tests to the success of the Mars landing was an exciting motivating factor for the team. We are proud to have been a part of this mission.”
Suborbital vehicles – sounding rockets, scientific balloons, and aircraft - are great platforms for developing and testing spacecraft instruments and components. Spacecraft including Terra, Aqua, COBE, CGRO, SPITZER, SWIFT, HST, SOHO, and STEREO, have heritage connected with suborbital vehicle missions.
Rosanova said, “One of the beauties of suborbital vehicles is that an instrument or its components can be flown, improved, and then re-flown. This can be done within a few years, providing the opportunity for scientists to work out the bugs before flying on a spacecraft.”
In the case of the Mars 2020 parachutes, the first flight was a test to see if the right conditions can be achieved during the flight to simulate what the parachutes will encounter descending through the Mars’ atmosphere. The second flight, 6 months later in March 2018, was the first full test of the parachute. The final successful test conducted in September 2018 provided the results needed for the Perseverance parachute team to be confident that the design was ready for the Mars 2020 mission.
NASA is currently developing plans for a Mars Sample Return mission to retrieve the rocks and soil samples collected by Perseverance and return them to Earth. Teams are preparing to test concepts for the Mars Ascent Vehicle that will carry the collected samples from the planet’s surface.
Suborbital vehicles, either a sounding rocket or a scientific balloon, are being examined for testing the ascent vehicle. Wallops personnel are excited to be a part of this next step of exploring the red planet as we go the Moon, Mars, and beyond.Header Image: The descent stage holding NASA’s Perseverance rover can be seen falling through the Martian atmosphere, its parachute trailing behind, in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021, by the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit NASA/JPL Cal-Tech
Quelle: NASA
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Punktgenaue Marslandung mit Bildern und Tönen am 18. Februar
+++Der NASA-Rover Perseverance ist erfolgreich am 18. Februar 2021 um 21:55 Uhr (MEZ) im Krater Jezero auf dem Mars gelandet.+++
Am 18. Februar 2021 wird die NASA die präziseste Landung auf dem Roten Planeten einleiten, die es je gegeben hat. Eine Raumsonde mit dem Rover Perseverance (Beharrlichkeit) im Gepäck wird etwa um 21:38 Uhr (MEZ) mit knapp 19.500 Kilometer pro Stunde in die Marsatmosphäre eintreten. In sieben entscheidenden Minuten bremst das Raumfahrzeug dann mit Hitzeschild, Fallschirm und Bremstriebwerken auf null, um den Rover um 21:45 Uhr (MEZ) an Seilen schwebend im Krater Jezero abzusetzen. Wegen der Signallaufzeit von etwa elf Minuten vom Mars zur Erde wird die Bestätigung der Landung frühestens um 21:55 (MEZ) im Kontrollzentrum der NASA im Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, Kalifornien) eintreffen. Das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) ist im Wissenschaftsteam der Mission Mars 2020 vertreten und an der Auswertung der Daten und Bilder beteiligt. Perseverance wird nach Anzeichen von früherem Leben suchen und Gesteinsproben sammeln, die schließlich mit Folgemissionen zur Erde zurückgebracht werden sollen.
Beim Landevorgang ist erstmals geplant, Geräusche und hoch aufgelöste Videoaufnahmen zur Erde zu übertragen. Der bisher komplexeste Rover der NASA trägt mehr Kameras als jede andere interplanetare Mission der Raumfahrtgeschichte. 19 Aufnahmesysteme befinden sich auf dem Rover selbst, hinzu kommen vier Kameras auf anderen Teilen des Raumfahrzeugs, die Aufnahmen des Eintritts, Abstiegs und der Landung aufzeichnen. Nach der Landung und Systemchecks beginnt sofort die erste Erkundung der Umgebung. Mit der 3D-Kamera Mastcam-Z ist von einem zwei Meter hohen Mast die Aufnahme, Übertragung und Prozessierung eines ersten farbigen 360-Grad-Panoramas in 3D programmiert. Anschließend werden über mehrere Tage alle Systemkomponenten geprüft, ehe die wissenschaftliche Mission beginnt.
DLR steuert vielfältige wissenschaftliche Expertise bei
„Das Panorama wird uns im Laufe der ersten Wochen den Blick in eine ganz besondere Landschaft öffnen: Sedimente in einem ehemaligen, uralten Kratersee auf dem Mars mit einem gut erhaltenen Flussdelta, in dessen feinkörnigen Ablagerungen vielleicht Spuren von vergangenem einfachen Leben zu finden sein könnten“, sagt Nicole Schmitz vom Berliner DLR-Institut für Planetenforschung. „Wir haben von Anfang an im Wissenschaftsteam auch Aufgaben bei der Datenprozessierung“, ergänzt Frank Preusker vom gleichen Institut. „Dabei bringen wir vor allem unsere langjährige Expertise in der Verarbeitung von Stereobilddaten zu digitalen Geländemodellen ein.“ Mit maximalem Zoom kann die Kamera sogar bei einzelnen Aufnahmen Objekte von gerade einmal der Größe einer Stubenfliege über die Länge eines Fußballfeldes hinweg sichtbar machen. Die wissenschaftliche Leitung der Mastcam-Z liegt bei der Arizona State University.
Dr. Susanne Schröder vom Berliner DLR-Institut für Optische Sensorsysteme ist Co-Investigator des Spektrometers SuperCam und bei der Analyse von Messungen mit dem Instrument beteiligt. Das vom Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico und IRAP/CNES in Toulouse/Frankreich geleitete Instrument ermöglicht es, kontaktlos mittels Laser die chemische Zusammensetzung und Mineralogie von Gesteinen, Sand und Staub in der Umgebung des Rovers zu bestimmen. Insgesamt sieben wissenschaftliche Instrumente befinden sich auf dem Rover. Vom DLR-Institut für Planetenforschung sind die Wissenschaftler Dr. Jean-Pierre de Vera, Dr. Andreas Lorek und Dr. Stephen Garland in die Kalibrierung der Feuchtesensoren und die Datenanalyse des MEDA Instruments (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer) eingebunden. MEDA misst mit einer Reihe von Sensoren Temperatur, Windgeschwindigkeit und Windrichtung, Druck, relative Luftfeuchtigkeit sowie die Größe und Form von Staub. Die wissenschaftliche Leitung von MEDA liegt beim Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid/Spanien.
Technologisches Neuland beschreitet die NASA mit der Helikopterdrohne Ingenuity (Genialität): Erstmals in der Geschichte der Raumfahrt wird ein von der Erde mitgeführtes Fluggerät vom Boden eines anderen Planeten in die Atmosphäre aufsteigen, kontrolliert die Gegend überfliegen und auch wieder landen, um das Experiment mehrere Male zu wiederholen. Bei weniger als einem Hundertstel des irdischen Luftdrucks musste Ingenuity extrem leicht gebaut werden und gleichzeitig sehr großflächige, extrem schnell rotierende Rotorblätter erhalten. Die Drohne hat eine Masse von 1800 Gramm und Rotorblätter von 120 Zentimeter Spannweite. Eine Minikamera wird Bilder aus 10 bis 15 Metern Höhe liefern.
An Nylonseilen hängend präzise zu Boden
Während des Eintritts in die Marsatmosphäre erhitzt sich der Schutzschild des Raumfahrzeugs innerhalb von drei Minuten auf rund 1300 Grad Celsius. Der Überschall-Fallschirm mit einem Durchmesser von 21,5 Metern entfaltet sich etwa vier Minuten nach dem Eintritt in eine Höhe von etwa 11 Kilometern bei einer Abstiegsgeschwindigkeit von 1.512 Kilometern pro Stunde. Zwanzig Sekunden nach der Entfaltung des Fallschirms wird der Hitzeschild abgesprengt und fällt nach unten weg, so dass für den weiteren Abstieg ein Radar und Kameras in Echtzeit gewonnene Informationen mit einprogrammierten Landkarten und Geländemodellen vergleichen: Ein neuartiges Autopilotsystem analysiert in Echtzeit die jetzt möglichen Landestellen und gleicht diese mit der aktuellen Position des Raumfahrzeugs ab, um dann die finale Landestelle auf der Marsoberfläche zu bestimmen. Noch nie konnte in dieser Präzision das am besten erreichbare und vor allem auch sichere Landeziel ausgewählt werden.
Etwa 2,1 Kilometer über dem Boden bei einer Abstiegsgeschwindigkeit von immer noch rund 300 Kilometern pro Stunde wird die Hülle mit dem Fallschirm abgesprengt und die Landetriebwerke zünden. Diese steuern das Raumfahrzeug zur ausgewählten Landestelle und bremsen es bis auf 2,7 Kilometer pro Stunde in 20 Metern über der Oberfläche ab. An diesem Punkt leitet die Landestufe das sogenannte „Sky Crane-Manöver“ ein: Nach dem Ausklappen der sechs Räder wird der Rover von der Größe eines Kleinwagens und einer Masse von 1025 Kilogramm an drei sich abrollenden Nylonseilen 7,6 Meter von diesem „Himmelskran“ unter die Landestufe abgesenkt. Wenn Perseverance Bodenkontakt zur Abstiegsstufe meldet und der Rover im Jezero-Krater steht, durchtrennen pyrotechnisch gezündete Klingen die Seile. Die in der Luft verbliebene Antriebseinheit fliegt davon, bevor sie in sicherer Entfernung auf der Marsoberfläche aufschlägt. Wegen der Signallaufzeiten vom Mars zur Erde erhält das Kontrollzentrum am Jet Propulsion Laboratory der NASA in Kalifornien alle Statussignale mit rund 11 Minuten Verzögerung und kann in den automatischen Landeablauf nicht eingreifen. Während der Landephase kommt in Deutschland auch die 100-Meter-Antenne des Max-Planck-Instituts für Radioastronomie zum Einsatz. Das voll bewegliche Teleskop in Effelsberg bei Bonn wird das Signal von der Marssonde wie andere Empfangsstellen weltweit bei einer Wellenlänge von 74,7 Zentimeter aufnehmen und der NASA zur Verfügung stellen.
Flussdelta und Kratersee aus der Frühzeit des Mars
Der 45 Kilometer große Jezero-Krater auf dem Mars ist ein – in fünfjährigen Beratungen ausgewählter – vielversprechender Ort, um nach Anzeichen für vergangenes mikrobielles Leben zu suchen. Vor mehr als 3,5 Milliarden Jahren war das heute knochentrockene Becken die Heimat eines stehenden Gewässers, eines Sees, in dem von zwei Zuflüssen abgelagerte Sedimente ein vielgestaltiges Flussdelta hinterlassen haben. Untersuchungen mit den Experimenten auf Perseverance könnten Spuren dieses früheren Lebens in den Ablagerungen des Flussdeltas identifizieren.
Zudem trägt Perseverance erstmals in der Geschichte der Erkundung des Mars 38 Behälter zum Einsammeln von Proben an Bord, die mit Bohrkernen aus bis zu 20 Zentimetern Tiefe gefüllt und an geeigneten Stellen auf dem Mars für eine spätere Rücksendung zur Erde zunächst abgelegt werden. Zwei zukünftige gemeinsam von NASA und ESA geplante Missionen sollen die etwa bleistiftgroßen Proben in den frühen 2030er Jahren zur Erde bringen. Auf der Erde sollen diese dann von Wissenschaftlern auf der ganzen Welt mit Geräten, die viel zu groß und komplex wären, um sie zum Roten Planeten zu schicken, eingehend analysiert werden.
Reger Besuch auf dem Mars
Perseverance ist mittlerweile der fünfte Rover, den die NASA zum Mars schickt. 1997 landete Sojourner im Rahmen der Mission Mars Pathfinder und sendete rund drei Monate lang Daten und Bilder vom Roten Planeten zur Erde. 2004 folgten die Zwillingsrover Spirit und Opportunity, die erstmals größere Strecken zurücklegten, bis der Marswinter 2007 die Kommunikation mit Spirit und ein Staubsturm 2018 schließlich auch mit Opportunity beendeten. 2012 landete der bis heute im Krater Gale aktive Rover Curiosity, dessen Chassis baugleich mit dem von Perseverance ist. 2009 landete die Forschungsstation Phoenix im hohem Norden, und 2018 setzte zuletzt die stationäre Landeplattform InSight auf dem Mars auf, ein geophysikalisches Labor, das das Innere des Planeten unter anderem mit der selbsthämmernden Thermalsonde HP³ des DLR, dem „Marsmaulwurf“, erkundet. Der NASA-Rover Perseverance ist zunächst für eine Missionsdauer von einem Marsjahr (zwei Erdjahren) ausgelegt mit der Option auf eine Verlängerung der Mission.
Auch im nächsten Startfenster zum Mars im Jahr 2022 ist geplant, einen Rover von der Erde zum Roten Planeten zu schicken, der nach Spuren früheren Lebens suchen soll: Im Rahmen des ExoMars-Programms der ESA und der russischen Raumfahrtagentur Roscosmos wird der Rover Rosalind Franklin dabei unter anderem Proben aus bis zu zwei Metern Tiefe an die Marsoberfläche befördern und in seinem Inneren hochgenau nach Biosignaturen analysieren. In der Tiefe sind organische Verbindungen vor der Zerstörung durch kosmische Strahlung besser geschützt. Das DLR steuert einen Teil der wissenschaftlichen Nutzlast zu Rosalind Franklin bei: Eine hochauflösende Kamera auf dem Mast des Rovers wird es den Wissenschaftlern ermöglichen, verschiedene Gesteine zu interpretieren und den bestmöglichen Platz für die Bohrungen festzulegen.
Quelle: DLR
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Update: 5.03.2021
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NASA to Provide Update on Perseverance ‘Firsts’ Since Mars Landing
Since NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover touched down at Jezero Crater Feb. 18, mission controllers have made substantial progress as they prepare the rover for the unpaved road ahead. Mission team members from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will discuss mission “firsts” achieved so far and those to come in a media teleconference at 3:30 p.m. EST (12:30 p.m. PST) Friday, March 5.
The teleconference audio and accompanying visuals will stream live on the NASA JPL YouTube channel.
Discussing the rover’s progress will be:
- Robert Hogg, Perseverance deputy mission manager, JPL
- Anais Zarifian, Perseverance mobility test bed engineer, JPL
- Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance deputy project scientist, JPL
To participate in the teleconference, media must provide their name and affiliation to Rexana Vizza (rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov) no later than 1:30 p.m. EST (10:30 a.m. PST) Friday, March 5. Members of the media and public also may ask questions on social media during the teleconference using #CountdownToMars.
Since landing, NASA’s largest, most sophisticated Mars rover yet has gone through checks on every system and subsystem and sent back thousands of images from Jezero Crater. These checks will continue in the coming days, and the rover will make its first drives. Each system checkout and milestone completed marks a significant step forward as the rover prepares for surface operations. The primary mission is slated for one Martian year, or 687 Earth days.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 6.03.2021
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NASA's new Mars rover hits dusty red road, 1st trip 21 feet
NASA's newest Mars rover has hit the dusty red road, taking a spin for the first time this week
NASA
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA’s newest Mars rover hit the dusty red road this week, putting 21 feet on the odometer in its first test drive.
The Perseverance rover ventured from its landing position Thursday, two weeks after setting down on the red planet to seek signs of past life.
The roundabout, back and forth drive lasted just 33 minutes and went so well that more driving was on tap Friday and Saturday for the the six-wheeled rover.
“This is really the start of our journey here,” said Rich Rieber, the NASA engineer who plotted the route. “This is going to be like the Odyssey, adventures along the way, hopefully no Cyclops, and I’m sure there will be stories aplenty written about it.”
In its first drive, Perseverance went forward 13 feet (4 meters), took a 150-degree left turn, then backed up 8 feet (2.5 meters). During a news conference Friday, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, shared photos of its tracks over and around small rocks.
“I don't think I've ever been happier to see wheel tracks and I've seen a lot of them," said engineer Anais Zarifian.
Flight controllers are still checking all of Perseverance's systems. So far, everything is looking good. The rover's 7-foot (2-meter) robot arm, for instance, flexed its muscles for the first time Tuesday.
Before the car-size rover can head for an ancient river delta to collect rocks for eventual return to Earth, it must drop its so-called protective “belly pan” and release an experimental helicopter named Ingenuity.
As it turns out, Perseverance landed right on the edge of a potential helicopter landing strip — a nice, flat spot, according to Rieber. So the plan is to drive out of this landing strip, ditch the pan, then return for Ingenuity's highly anticipated test flight. All this should be accomplished by late spring.
Scientists are debating whether to take the smoother route to get to the nearby delta or a possibly tougher way with intriguing remnants from that once-watery time 3 billion to 4 billion years ago.
Perseverance — NASA's biggest and most elaborate rover yet — became the ninth U.S. spacecraft to successfully land on Mars on Feb. 18. China hopes to land its smaller rover — currently orbiting the red planet — in another few months.
NASA scientists, meanwhile, announced Friday that they’ve named Perseverance’s touchdown site in honor of the late science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler, who grew up next door to JPL in Pasadena. She was one of the first African Americans to receive mainstream attention for science fiction. Her works included “Bloodchild and Other Stories” and “Parable of the Sower.”
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Quelle: abcNews
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NASA’s Perseverance Drives on Mars’ Terrain for First Time
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover performed its first drive on Mars March 4, covering 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across the Martian landscape. The drive served as a mobility test that marks just one of many milestones as team members check out and calibrate every system, subsystem, and instrument on Perseverance. Once the rover begins pursuing its science goals, regular commutes extending 656 feet (200 meters) or more are expected.
“When it comes to wheeled vehicles on other planets, there are few first-time events that measure up in significance to that of the first drive,” said Anais Zarifian, Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mobility test bed engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “This was our first chance to ‘kick the tires’ and take Perseverance out for a spin. The rover’s six-wheel drive responded superbly. We are now confident our drive system is good to go, capable of taking us wherever the science leads us over the next two years.”
The drive, which lasted about 33 minutes, propelled the rover forward 13 feet (4 meters), where it then turned in place 150 degrees to the left and backed up 8 feet (2.5 meters) into its new temporary parking space. To help better understand the dynamics of a retrorocket landing on the Red Planet, engineers used Perseverance’s Navigation and Hazard Avoidance Cameras to image the spot where Perseverance touched down, dispersing Martian dust with plumes from its engines.
More Than Roving
The rover’s mobility system is not the only thing getting a test drive during this period of initial checkouts. On Feb. 26 – Perseverance’s eighth Martian day, or sol, since landing – mission controllers completed a software update, replacing the computer program that helped land Perseverance with one they will rely on to investigate the planet.
More recently, the controllers checked out Perseverance’s Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX) and Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instruments, and deployed the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument’s two wind sensors, which extend out from the rover’s mast. Another significant milestone occurred on March 2, or sol 12, when engineers unstowed the rover’s 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm for the first time, flexing each of its five joints over the course of two hours.
“Tuesday’s first test of the robotic arm was a big moment for us,” said Robert Hogg, Mars 2020 Perseverance rover deputy mission manager. “That’s the main tool the science team will use to do close-up examination of the geologic features of Jezero Crater, and then we’ll drill and sample the ones they find the most interesting. When we got confirmation of the robotic arm flexing its muscles, including images of it working beautifully after its long trip to Mars – well, it made my day.”
Upcoming events and evaluations include more detailed testing and calibration of science instruments, sending the rover on longer drives, and jettisoning covers that shield both the adaptive caching assembly (part of the rover’s Sample Caching System) and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during landing. The experimental flight test program for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will also take place during the rover’s commissioning.
Through it all, the rover is sending down images from the most advanced suite of cameras ever to travel to Mars. The mission’s cameras have already sent about 7,000 images. On Earth, Perseverance’s imagery flows through the powerful Deep Space Network (DSN), managed by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. In space, several Mars orbiters play an equally important role.
“Orbiter support for downlink of data has been a real gamechanger,” said Justin Maki, chief engineer for imaging and the imaging scientist for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission at JPL. “When you see a beautiful image from Jezero, consider that it took a whole team of Martians to get it to you. Every picture from Perseverance is relayed by either the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter, or NASA’s MAVEN, Mars Odyssey, or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They are important partners in our explorations and our discoveries.”
The sheer volume of imagery and data already coming down on this mission has been a welcome bounty for Matt Wallace, who recalls waiting anxiously for the first images to trickle in during NASA’s first Mars rover mission, Sojourner, which explored Mars in 1997. On March 3, Wallace became the mission’s new project manager. He replaced John McNamee, who is stepping down as he intended, after helming the project for nearly a decade.
“John has provided unwavering support to me and every member of the project for over a decade,” said Wallace. “He has left his mark on this mission and team, and it has been my privilege to not only call him boss but also my friend.”
Touchdown Site Named
With Perseverance departing from its touchdown site, mission team scientists have memorialized the spot, informally naming it for the late science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. The groundbreaking author and Pasadena, California, native was the first African American woman to win both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award, and she was the first science fiction writer honored with a MacArthur Fellowship. The location where Perseverance began its mission on Mars now bears the name “Octavia E. Butler Landing."
Official scientific names for places and objects throughout the solar system – including asteroids, comets, and locations on planets – are designated by the International Astronomical Union. Scientists working with NASA’s Mars rovers have traditionally given unofficial nicknames to various geological features, which they can use as references in scientific papers.
“Butler’s protagonists embody determination and inventiveness, making her a perfect fit for the Perseverance rover mission and its theme of overcoming challenges,” said Kathryn Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist for Perseverance. “Butler inspired and influenced the planetary science community and many beyond, including those typically under-represented in STEM fields.”
“I can think of no better person to mark this historic landing site than Octavia E. Butler, who not only grew up next door to JPL in Pasadena, but she also inspired millions with her visions of a science-based future,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science. “Her guiding principle, ‘When using science, do so accurately,’ is what the science team at NASA is all about. Her work continues to inspire today’s scientists and engineers across the globe – all in the name of a bolder, more equitable future for all.”
Butler, who died in 2006, authored such notable works as “Kindred,” “Bloodchild,” “Speech Sounds,” “Parable of the Sower,” “Parable of the Talents,” and the “Patternist” series. Her writing explores themes of race, gender, equality, and humanity, and her works are as relevant today as they were when originally written and published.
More About the Mission
A key objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 11.03.2021
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Listen to new sounds from Mars recorded by NASA's Perseverance rover
Turns out a breeze on Mars sounds very similar to a breeze on Earth.
NASA released new audio recordings from the surface of Mars on Wednesday.
The recording was taken by the SuperCam instrument on NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed on the red planet last month.
Perseverance is NASA's most sophisticated rover yet and is tasked with the goal of searching for signs of ancient life.
"Things are sounding really good here. Listen to the first sounds of wind captured by my SuperCam microphone," a tweet from Perseverance's official Twitter handle read. "This mic is located at the top of my mast. For this recording, my mast was still down so the sound is a bit muffled."
NASA said the recording was made on Feb. 19, just 18 hours after the rover's landing.
Perseverance has already sent back to Earth a slew of images from its new home on Mars that have depicted the red planet like never before.
The rover is expected to pave the way for eventual human exploration of Mars.
Quelle: abcNews