{"id":12262,"date":"2020-08-19T19:19:42","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T11:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/mars-missions-complete-first-course-corrections-on-journey-to-red-planet\/"},"modified":"2020-08-19T19:19:42","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T11:19:42","slug":"mars-missions-complete-first-course-corrections-on-journey-to-red-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/mars-missions-complete-first-course-corrections-on-journey-to-red-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars missions complete first course corrections on journey to Red Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This illustration from NASA\u2019s \u201cEyes on the Solar System\u201d app shows the Mars 2020 spacecraft outbound from planet Earth. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three robotic Mars missions launched from Earth last month have begun fine-tuning their trajectories through the solar system with the first in a series mid-course corrections to take aim on the Red Planet for arrival next February.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launched from Cape Canaveral on July 30, following successful launchings with the United Arab Emirates\u2019 Hope orbiter July 19 and China\u2019s Tianwen 1 Mars mission July 23.<\/p>\n

The missions launched during a period of several weeks when Earth and Mars were in the right positions in their orbits around the sun to permit a direct route between the planets. All three spacecraft are due to arrive at Mars in February 2021.<\/p>\n

NASA said Aug. 14 that the Mars 2020 mission\u2019s first trajectory correction maneuver, or TCM, was a success. The spacecraft fired eight thrusters to adjust its course toward Mars, beginning to shift the probe\u2019s initial post-launch aim point on to the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

The mission\u2019s Atlas 5 launcher intentionally released the Mars 2020 spacecraft on a course that would miss Mars, ensuring the rocket\u2019s upper stage would not crash into the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the Perseverance rover cocooned inside the Mars 2020 spacecraft\u2019s aeroshell had logged more than 35 million miles, or 56 million kilometers, since blasting off from Florida\u2019s Space Coast on July 30.<\/p>\n

Mars 2020 mission planners have set aside time and propellant for five trajectory correction maneuvers to refine the spacecraft\u2019s path toward Mars and set up the rover to target a precise landing at Jezero Crater, an impact basin that once harbored a lake of liquid water with a river flowing into it.<\/p>\n

The nuclear-powered Perseverance rover will explore the crater, seeking signs of ancient life while collecting rock core samples for return to Earth by a future mission.<\/p>\n

In addition to the five planned course correction burns, Mars 2020 mission managers have opportunities to command the spacecraft to perform backup or contingency maneuvers if required.<\/p>\n

The next trajectory correction burns for Mars 2020 are scheduled for Sept. 30, Dec. 18, Feb. 10, and Feb. 16. That will set the stage for the Perseverance rover\u2019s landing on Mars on Feb. 18.<\/p>\n

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This illustration shows China\u2019s Tianwen 1 Mars mission as it appears during the cruise to the Red Planet. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

China\u2019s Tianwen 1 mission completed its first post-launch course correction Aug. 1 (GMT), according to the state-run Chinese Xinhua news agency.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft fired its main engine for 20 seconds in the first of several maneuvers planned during the trip to Mars. The maneuver also served as a test of the probe\u2019s main engine, which performed well during the burn, Chinese officials said.<\/p>\n

Tianwen 1 launched July 23 aboard a heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket. The ambitious mission will become China\u2019s first to reach Mars, and includes an orbiter, lander and rover.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft is scheduled to swing into orbit around Mars in February \u2014 using a lengthy engine burn \u2014 and the orbiter will survey candidate landing sites for two-to-three months before releasing the lander and rover to enter the Martian atmosphere.<\/p>\n

If China pulls off those feats according to plan, they will make China the third country to perform a soft landing on Mars \u2014 after the Soviet Union and the United States \u2014 and the second country to drive a robotic rover on the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

NASA has landed the only successful rovers on Mars to date.<\/p>\n

The UAE\u2019s Hope Mars orbiter has also successfully executed its first interplanetary course correction maneuver, mission officials announced Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

In a tweet, officials described the event as a \u201cmajor milestone\u201d on the journey to Mars. It was the first firing of the probe\u2019s six largest thrusters since the orbiter\u2019s launch July 19 on top of a Japanese H-2A rocket.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center \/ UAE Space Agency<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like NASA\u2019s Mars 2020 mission and China\u2019s Tianwen 1 spacecraft, the UAE\u2019s Hope orbiter will arrive at Mars in February.<\/p>\n

Funded and led by the United Arab Emirates \u2014 and developed in partnership with U.S. scientists \u2014 the Hope Mars probe carries a digital camera to image the Martian surface, dust storms and ice clouds, and spectrometers to measure constituents at multiple levels of the planet\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The Hope mission is the Arab world\u2019s first interplanetary probe.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This illustration from NASA\u2019s \u201cEyes on the Solar System\u201d app shows the Mars 2020 spacecraft outbound from planet Earth. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech Three robotic Mars missions launched from Earth last month have begun fine-tuning their trajectories through the solar system with the first in a series mid-course corrections to take aim on the Red Planet for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1638,135,1640,1641,1183,1642,367,1761],"class_list":["post-12262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-al-amal","tag-china","tag-emirates-mars-mission","tag-hope","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-lasp","tag-mars","tag-mars-2020"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}