NASA reports that the NASA Perseverance rover will enter Mars this weekend. Plunging through the thin atmosphere of Mars, explorers will experience a very unsettling time until they reach the planet’s surface.
Meanwhile, reported by the India Times, Monday (15/2/2021), what is worrying for the NASA team behind this mission is the fact that the rover must descend on its own.
As per NASA, Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars on Thursday, February 18 at around 2:35 a.m. IST. The explorer will touch the base of Mars in the Jezero Crater, a large crater about 45 kilometres wide, just north of the Martian equator.
Then, NASA also considers it the most ideal place to find evidence of ancient microbial life. As you descend you will see the plough plunge at a speed of about 20,000 km/h with just a parachute and come down with power to stop its fall.
Therefore, it is understandable that it is a very challenging experience. NASA says that of all the missions ever sent to Mars (by any space agency), only about 40 percent were successful.
The Perseverance landing will mark a significant milestone in NASA’s efforts to explore the red planet under the Mars Exploration Program for future habitation. Meanwhile, at a cost of $2.4 billion or the equivalent of N915 billion naira, NASA has equipped enough systems to beat the hurdles on the plane.
The Mars 2020 spacecraft, which contains a car-sized Perseverance rover and a miniature helicopter named ‘Ingenuity’, will follow the same entry, descent and landing processes used to land the Mars rover Curiosity. Meanwhile, the aircraft was, however, equipped with new breakthrough technology.
One of the most important of these is the heat shield that will protect the spacecraft from the extreme heat it faces when it enters the Martian atmosphere. Ten minutes before entering the atmosphere, the yacht stage will be ejected from the spacecraft and eventually catch fire.
However, the package must face temperatures of up to 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit (2,100 degrees Celsius). The heat shield will keep the temperature inside around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 Celsius).
The same atmospheric friction that would cause extreme heat would also slow the packet from 13,200 to 1,000 miles per hour (5.9 to 0.45 kilometres per second).
