STEM News: Perseverance Rover Landing on February 18!
One week from today on Thursday, Feb. 18, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover will touch down on the Red Planet. Tune in to watch the landing broadcast starting at 11:15 a.m. PST / 2:15 p.m. EST / 19:15 UTC. There is also a programme available in Spanish.
Landing: Feb. 18, 2021 (Show starts at 11:15 a.m. PST / 2:15 p.m. EST)
Landing Site: Jezero Crater, Mars
Mission Duration: At least one Mars year (about 687 Earth days)
Links:
Perseverance Rover Landing Live (YouTube)
Channels that will carry the live broadcast include:
YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Dailymotion, Theta.TV & NASA App (via @NASA using #CountdownToMars)
ABOUT THE MISSION:
The name of the mission is Mars 2020 and the main purpose of the mission is to send the Perseverance rover to find signs of ancient life and collecte rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth. It was launched on July 30th, 2020 from Cape Canaveral, Florida and it would be landing at Jezero Crater on 18th February, 2021.
In fact, in July, STEM 4 Everyone had even posted an opportunity to attend an amazing webinar about the mission, the rover and the landing site by Keck Institute of Space Studies (Caltech & JPL). You can find the recording on the KISS-Caltech YouTube channel!
The design of the Perseverance rover was based on Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover. It is 10 feet long, 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall, yet it weighs less than a compact car!
Download the Factsheet to learn more about the mission: Mars2020_Fact_Sheet.pdf
EXPLORE THE ROVER!
Dear Fellow Space Enthusiast,
Join us at 7 PM on Wednesday, Feb. 17, the eve of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing, to hear JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning explain the challenges, and some of the stories and lessons, that have led to the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) design of this newest Mars mission!
So far, half of all human attempts to land robots on Mars have ended in failure. In the past 20 years the success rate has improved to about 70% but even the experience gained from building on a string of 5 successful US Mars missions in a row can’t prepare us enough to guarantee success. On February 18, 2021, Mars 2020 with the Perseverance rover will try again. This time we will be aiming for an even smaller landing area on Mars that is littered with exciting surface science but also with danger. Over the last several years, the Mars 2020 team built on past Mars mission experiences and inventions to develop new tricks that will improve the odds to stack the deck in favor of a safe landing and an exciting start for a Mars Sample Return mission.
This program is organized by the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS), a joint think tank of the Caltech Campus and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Webinar: The Thrill and Terror of Landing a Spacecraft on Mars
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 7:00 P.M. PST
Source:
NASA, JPL/Caltech
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