First Flight on Mars: Mars 2020
A few days ago, NASA’s helicopter completed its first flight on Mars. Let’s find out why the Mars 2020 mission by NASA is being discussed on a large scale and how it could be the beginning of many future missions.
Perseverance, the much-awaited rover started its journey from Earth on July 30, 2020. The mission was announced on 4 December 2012 by NASA. Most of the space missions require years of research to just get it started. Unfortunately, if it fails, the entire work reduces to a piece of junk. Because of such issues and to manage expenses, long periods are devoted to space missions. The objectives of the MARS 2020 mission is to study geology, astrobiological life, sample caching, preparation of human on the Martian surface.
This mission is part of the Mars Exploration Program launched in 1993. You can see the list of the missions in the table below.
Why Mars?
The answer is pretty simple, Mars lies very close to Earth and the orbiters have shown proof that water once flowed on Martian land. In addition to this, Mars has a thin atmosphere. The Perseverance rover landed on the Jezero crater. The team came up with eight landing sites, shortlisted three and it selected Jezero as the most convenient. Scientists believe that this place was once flooded with water and could have been home to an ancient river delta. Perseverance has bigger tires than its predecessor Curiosity and has curved titanium sporks for springy support.
The 7 Minutes of Terror
The word Terror signifies the meaning ‘can’t be controlled by humans’. 7 Minutes refer to the entry descent and landing phase of the rover as the radio signals are not fast enough since they are automated. The rover and equipments are covered in carbon fiber to protect it from heat. Once it’s through it is jettisoned from the lower heat shield and parachutes are deployed from the upper shield. When the craft speed is under 320 km/hr and it is 19 km from the surface, the chute detaches and the rest of the landing is controlled by rocket propulsion jets attached to the sky crane. As the sky crane approaches the ground it slowly lowers the rover via cables. Immediately when it lands, the cables detached from the sky crane crashes away from the rover to prevent any disturbance to the rover. Yes we humans dump trash on other planets as well.
The Easter Eggs
The parachute deployed had a hidden message in binary format when converted gives Dare Mighty Things. That’s not the end, Perseverance has a family portrait of the previous martian rovers. It even has a piece of Martian rock that crashed on Earth years ago. This rock even made a stop at the ISS before it was taken home. This rover also has a memorial for health care workers and others who died due to Covid-19 pandemic. Even more of such creative ideas are yet to be revealed. In the previous missions also NASA didn’t fail to amaze everyone. The tire tracks of Curiosity rover had Morse Codes for JPL. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity had relic from the demolished World Trade Centre. An aluminum piece retracted from the building was used for the making of an equipment that went into the rover.
The rover is currently in motion and is discovering the depths of Mars. NASA was able to capture high-end visuals of parachute deployment, landing, and the sound of the martian breeze along with the hum of the rover.
Recently, MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) had successfully extracted oxygen from carbon dioxide on Mars. It produced around 5.4 g of Oxygen which is enough for an astronaut to breathe for 10 minutes. This breakthrough took us a step closer to the colonisation of Mars.
Ingenuity
Inside Perseverance is someone special, the Ingenuity. Ingenuity is a small helicopter that was designed to become the first flight from Mars. The initial prototype was made in 2014. The rotors will be spinning between 2000–3000 revolutions per minute. To understand the speed on Earth the rpm is around 500 for the helicopters.
The first flight took place on 19 April 2021 and it ascended 3 meters, thus becoming the first flight on another planet. This is a milestone and gateway for future space explorations. There are many odds in the success of the Ingenuity like the temperature and dust storms. The mission already planned is for 30 sol (30 martian days).
Along with NASA, UAE Space Agency and China National Space Administration have sent their Mars orbiters, Hope and Tianwen-1 respectively, to Mars during this window and have attained success. The Tianwen-1 has a rover, and it’s looking for a landing site to unload it. The Perseverance mission will collect samples and the fetch rover is expected to be launched in 2026. The landing and fetching will happen in early 2029, and return is envisaged for 2031. If we are lucky enough we will find something like the CALVIN from the Hollywood movie ‘LIFE’ on our planet, and you have the full liberty to define luck here.
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