+++ The NASA rover Perseverance landed successfully on February 18, 2021 at 9:55 p.m. (CET) in the Jezero crater on Mars. +++
On February 18, 2021, NASA will initiate the most precise landing on the Red Planet that has ever taken place. A space probe with the Rover Perseverance (Perseverance) in its luggage will enter the Martian atmosphere at around 21:38 (CET) at just under 19,500 kilometers per hour.
In seven crucial minutes, the spacecraft then brakes to zero with a heat shield, parachute, and brake engines in order to lower the rover on ropes in the Jezero crater at 9:45 p.m. (CET).
Due to the signal travel time of about eleven minutes from Mars to Earth, confirmation of the landing will arrive at NASA's control center in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California) at 21:55 (CET) at the earliest.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is represented in the science team of the Mars 2020 mission and is involved in the evaluation of the data and images. Perseverance will search for signs of past life and collect rock samples that will eventually be returned to Earth with follow-up missions.
During the landing process, it is planned for the first time to transmit sounds and high-resolution video recordings to earth. NASA's most complex rover to date carries more cameras than any other interplanetary mission in space history.
19 recording systems are located on the rover itself, plus four cameras on other parts of the spacecraft that record recordings of entry, descent and landing. After the landing and system checks, the first exploration of the area begins immediately.
With the 3D camera Mastcam-Z, the recording, transmission and processing of a first full-color 360-degree panorama in 3D is programmed from a two-meter-high mast. All system components are then checked over several days before the scientific mission begins.
- Seven scientific instruments on rover the size of a small car: Including a camera for colored 360-degree panoramas in 3D - DLR involved in image data processing and evaluation.
- In the 3.9 billion year old Jezero crater there was at times a lake. At the confluence of the two tributaries, river deltas had formed from sediments in which microbiological life could once have existed.
- For the first time in the history of space travel, Mars samples are collected for later return to earth.
- Another novelty: a helicopter drone will soar into the thin Martian atmosphere.
- An overview of all livestreams related to the landing can be found here: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/
- Focus: space travel, exploration, Mars
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