{"id":12482,"date":"2020-05-09T22:56:09","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T14:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/launch-preparations-continue-for-nasas-next-mars-rover\/"},"modified":"2020-05-09T22:56:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T14:56:09","slug":"launch-preparations-continue-for-nasas-next-mars-rover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/launch-preparations-continue-for-nasas-next-mars-rover\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch preparations continue for NASA\u2019s next Mars rover"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover is seen underneath its back shell inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 29. Credit: NASA JPL\/Christian Mangano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On track for launch from Cape Canaveral in July, NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has been secured to its rocket-powered descent stage and back shell, part of the protective shield that will safeguard the robot when it arrives at Mars next year.<\/p>\n

The rover was attached to its descent stage April 23 inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The combined descent stage and rover stack was then stowed inside the mission\u2019s back shell, half of the aeroshell that will enclose the rover during its trip from Earth to Mars.<\/p>\n

The integration milestones signal the start of putting the Perseverance rover into launch configuration. The mission\u2019s launch period opens July 17 and extends through Aug. 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttaching the rover to the descent stage is a major milestone for the team because these are the first spacecraft components to come together for launch, and they will be the last to separate when we reach Mars,\u201d said David Gruel, the Perseverance rover assembly, test, and launch operations manager at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which manages rover operations. \u201cThese two assemblies will remain firmly nestled together until they are about 65 feet (20 meters) over the surface of Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three flight separation bolts connect the rover with its descent stage, which has eight hydrazine-fueled rocket thrusters to slow the craft\u2019s velocity just before landing. The three bolts will be released by pyrotechnic charges in the final stage of the mission\u2019s descent to the Martian surface, allowing a Nylon cord to unwind and lower the rover around 25 feet (7.6 meters) below the descent stage, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

NASA calls the landing technique the \u201csky crane\u201d maneuver. The same type of descent stage was successfully employed in the landing of NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover on Mars in August 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Perseverance senses it\u2019s on the surface, pyrotechnically-fired blades will sever the cords, and the descent stage flies off,\u201d NASA said in a statement. \u201cThe sky crane maneuver ensures Perseverance will land on the Martian surface free of any other spacecraft components, eliminating the need for a complex deployment procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover is seen underneath its back shell inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 29. Credit: NASA JPL\/Christian Mangano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the next few weeks, engineers and technicians working inside the pristine clean room at Kennedy will install sterilized tubes on the rover. The tubes will store Martian rock samples until a future mission can retrieve the specimens for return to Earth.<\/p>\n

Then ground crews will attach the mission\u2019s 14.9-foot-wide (4.5-meter) ablative heat shield on the bottom of the back shell, cocooning the rover inside its aeroshell, which will protect the robot from scorching temperatures as it plunges into the Martian atmosphere. The aeroshell will then be attached to the mission\u2019s solar-powered cruise stage, the module that will fine-tune the rover\u2019s trajectory on the interplanetary journey to the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

The circular cruise stage will jettison from the aeroshell just before entry into the Martian atmosphere. The mission\u2019s entry, descent and landing on Mars is fixed on Feb. 18, 2021, regardless of when it lifts off during this year\u2019s 20-day launch period.<\/p>\n

Once through the hottest part of entry, the spacecraft will deploy a supersonic parachute, then release the heat shield on the bottom of the aeroshell. The rocket pack landing stage will then separate from the back shell to begin the powered descent phase before lowering the rover for touchdown.<\/p>\n

The entire entry, descent and landing process will take around seven minutes from the time the spacecraft hits the upper reaches of the Martian atmosphere until the rover softly lands on the surface of Mars.<\/p>\n

Before the rover can attempt the make-or-break landing on Mars, the mission has to safely launch from Earth.<\/p>\n

Once the Mars-bound spacecraft is fully assembled in June, the team of JPL engineers working at Kennedy will hand over the vehicle to United Launch Alliance for encapsulation inside the payload fairing of its Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n

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NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover is seen underneath its back shell inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 29. Credit: NASA JPL\/Christian Mangano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The spacecraft \u2014 inside the Atlas 5\u2019s fairing \u2014 will next be transported across the Cape Canaveral spaceport to ULA\u2019s Vertical Integration Facility at pad 41. A crane will hoist the payload on top of the Atlas 5 rocket inside the VIF for final electrical checkouts and an end-to-end integrated test before rolling out to the launch pad.<\/p>\n

Also on tap in early July: The installation of the rover\u2019s plutonium power source. The nuclear-powered robot will be fitted with its radioisotope power generator inside ULA\u2019s vertical rocket hangar.<\/p>\n

If the launch remains on track for July 17, the launch window that day opens at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT).<\/p>\n

The Perseverance rover is currently second in line on ULA\u2019s mission manifest after the planned launch of an Atlas 5 rocket May 16 with the U.S. Air Force\u2019s X-37B orbital spaceplane.<\/p>\n

Once the X-37B mission takes off, ULA will begin stacking the Atlas 5 rocket for the Perseverance mission, formerly known as Mars 2020. The Atlas 5 assigned to launch the Mars rover will fly in the \u201c541\u201d configuration with a 5.4-meter-diameter (17.7-foot) payload fairing and four solid-fueled strap-on boosters.<\/p>\n

NASA says ground teams are taking extra precautions as they prepare the Perseverance rover for launch during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

If the mission can\u2019t take off in July or August, the next opportunity to launch the rover will not be until September 2022, when the Earth and Mars are again properly aligned to make the interplanetary voyage possible. Such a delay could add up to $500 million to the mission\u2019s total cost, according to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.<\/p>\n

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NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover (bottom) is seen during attachment to the mission\u2019s rocket-powered descent stage (top) April 23 inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA JPL\/Christian Mangano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While many members of the mission\u2019s software development, science, operations and planning teams have worked remotely over the last two months, around 80 mission-critical personnel have performed required final processing, testing and assembly steps on the spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n

The processing team traveled between their home base in Southern California and Florida\u2019s Space Coast on a NASA aircraft, minimizing their risk of exposure to the COVID-19 viral disease.<\/p>\n

NASA identified the Perseverance mission as the top priority for the agency\u2019s science directorate, and top officials approved extra measures to ensure the rover could remain on schedule for launch.<\/p>\n

Some team members who would have traveled to Kennedy to perform inspections of the rover were able to instead complete their work remotely, thanks to a live video connection through a smartphone.<\/p>\n

In addition to its sample collection mission, the Perseverance rover carries a suite of science instruments and the first zoom-capable camera to travel to Mars. The instruments will gather information on soil and rock composition, and the presence of organic material, the building blocks of life.<\/p>\n

A Norwegian-developed ground-penetrating radar on Perseverance will study the Red Planet\u2019s underground geologic structure. The instruments mounted inside the Perseverance rover\u2019s main body include MOXIE, which will demonstrate the production of oxygen from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars, a capability that future astronaut explorers could use.<\/p>\n

The mission also carries a weather station and two microphones to record the sound of the rover\u2019s landing and Martian winds.<\/p>\n

Another pioneering objective of the Perseverance mission will be the deployment of the first Mars Helicopter \u2014 recently named Ingenuity by Alabama high school student Vaneeza Rupani \u2014 to fly through the planet\u2019s thin atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Carrying cameras and its own solar panel to produce electricity, the rotorcraft become the first vehicle of its kind to fly to another planet. Its mission is primarily a technology demonstration.<\/p>\n

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

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

NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover is seen underneath its back shell inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 29. Credit: NASA JPL\/Christian Mangano On track for launch from Cape Canaveral in July, NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has been secured to its rocket-powered descent stage and back shell, part of the […]<\/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":[724,2010,1630,1183,428,367,1761,1632],"class_list":["post-12482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-coronavirus","tag-ingenuity","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-mars","tag-mars-2020","tag-mars-helicopter"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482"}],"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=12482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}