Last week, the United Arab Emirates’ Amal spacecraft was first launched into orbit around Mars on Wednesday, which will explore the planet only from a height. The next day, the Chinese Tian-Wen spacecraft did the same, which will also launch a reconnaissance vehicle to the surface in May.
Although Perseverance will use the experience of its predecessor Curiosity as it descends to Mars, one hundred percent success is uncertain. Only 40 percent of the landings on the red planet turned out well.
Seven minutes of terror
The landing will take only seven minutes, but technically it is the most demanding phase of the flight. The maneuver begins by entering the upper atmosphere at a speed of 20,000 kilometers per hour. Perseverance will be hidden in a protective case, the front part of which, the heat shield, will heat up to 1300 degrees Celsius. But the Rover will only have room temperature in the case, according to NASA. The small engines at the rear of the case will help to maintain the course to the designated landing site.
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The heat shield slows the speed to approximately 1600 kilometers per hour, which will be the time to safely open a supersonic parachute with a diameter of 21.5 meters. It should develop at an altitude of 11 kilometers at a speed of about 1500 kilometers per hour. A moment later, the heat shield separates and the cameras and instruments begin to monitor the terrain to program the safest place to sit thanks to the programming.
In the next phase, the parachute is disconnected, which reduces the speed to only 320 kilometers per hour. Subsequently, at an altitude of about 2100 meters, eight engines of the descending section are ignited. After approaching the surface for 20 meters, the rover begins to descend on cable ropes. As soon as the wheels touch the surface, the ropes are quickly unbuckled and the descending section flies off to the side to a safe distance.
Four tasks
Perseverance, which is planned to be operational for one Martian year, or 687 Earth days, has four scientific goals, according to NASA. The first is to identify an environment that may have supported microbial life. The second is to look for signs of former possible life in such environments; especially in rocks that are known to retain traces of life.
A suitable landing site was chosen to meet these objectives. It is the Jezero crater, where, according to scientists, 3.5 billion years ago there was water and where traces of possible former life could be preserved.
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The third task of the largest and most sophisticated vehicle to explore Mars so far is to drill rock and “soil” samples. These are then stored in sealed tubes, which should be transported by future missions for detailed analysis on Earth.
The fourth scientific goal of the Perseverance project will be to prepare people’s expeditions to the red planet. It will test the necessary techniques, such as methods for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere and identifying other possible sources, such as groundwater. This includes improving landing techniques, obtaining information about the weather, dust and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.
The equipment of the six-wheel robotic rover includes, among other things, an X-ray and ultraviolet spectrometer, a deep radar for underground research, a MOXIE device for the production of oxygen from Mars carbon dioxide, a MEDA meteorological station and panoramic cameras. A novelty is also a small reconnaissance helicopter, which will be the first controllable flying device used on a body other than Earth. He has to explore the terrain around the vehicle.
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10,932,295 Earthlings also take part in the Perseverance expedition, of which 24,963 come from the Czech Republic. Of course, only figuratively, these are the names of people who have expressed an interest in sending their names to Mars burned on one of the three chips. These are located on a special layer of protected plate, which is attached to the center of the rear cross member of the rover. At this point, the chips will be visible to Perseverance cameras.
Mars research
The truck weighs 1025 kilograms. It is three meters long, 2.7 meters wide and 2.2 meters high. According to NASA, the total costs of development, production, flight and operation on Mars amount to $ 2.7 billion (over 57 billion crowns).
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