#Perseverance Scouts Landing Sites for #Mars Sample Return Campaign!
#NASA’s Perseverance Mars #rover used one of its navigation cameras to take this image of flat terrain in #JezeroCrater. This is one possible site that NASA may consider for a #MarsSampleReturn lander that would collect Perseverance’s samples of Mars rock and sediment in the future. The lander would serve as the launch platform for a Mars Ascent Vehicle that would blast off from Mars, delivering the samples to an orbiter as part of their journey to #Earth for intensive study.
Choosing an area that lacks large rocks (especially those over 7 1/2 inches, or 19 centimeters, in diameter), sand dunes, and steeply angled terrain would go a long way toward easing the path for an MSR recovery vehicle to efficiently grab tubes before heading to the lander.
#JPL#RedPlanet#engineering#exploration#spacecraft#science
Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Recovering From Communications Blackout Spawned by Dust
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JPL reestablished contact with the small Ingenuity chopper on Thursday (May 5) after it missed a scheduled call-in about two days before. Engineers suggest that the Mars helicopter may have entered a low power state due to a combination of high levels of dust in the atmosphere and low local temperatures. The helicopter is battling dust, seasonal changes and conditions beyond its design plan, all of which mean it will face more obstacles in continuing its flights in the coming months. The FGPA unit is crucial to making sure Ingenuity remains operational, including controlling the power to avionics elements and operating heaters to keep Ingenuity alive during cold Martian nights. Controllers suspect that after the FGPA lost power, the helicopter's clock reset and the heaters turned off. To try to catch Ingenuity again, engineers commanded Perseverance to listen for the signal for nearly an entire Martian sol (day) on May 5, and finally heard from the helicopter around 11:45 a.m. local Mars time. Ingenuity was limited in what it could send to preserve its power, but controllers were able to determine that the helicopter's basic health appeared to be good. Dust, however, will remain a persistent threat for the solar-powered mission and make it more difficult to recharge the batteries. JPL officials said that Ingenuity has turned on its heaters whenever battery temperatures were lower than 5 degrees Fahrenheit for the past three sols. Engineers now have a new plan. Anew set of commands changed the point at which the battery turns on, to minus 40 degrees F. The helicopter will also be tasked to shut down immediately, instead of using up "precious" battery charge, JPL stated.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space.com
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#spaceupdates#spaceexploration#space#spacescience#spaceflight#spacetravel#spacenews#spacecraft#science#observations#experiments#mars#mission#perseverance#rover#ingenuity#ingenuityhelicopter#mars2020#marsmission#martiansurface#redplanet#nasa#jpl#flight#jezero#crater#2022#séítah
And now for something completely different...
During its 26th flight, the Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter—the first powered aircraft to fly on another world—spotted gear used by the Perseverance rover to survive its descent to the Martian surface. We've seen similar sights like this from orbit thanks to the HiRise camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but this is the first time we've been able to survey the scene up close, and it can teach us a lot about the forces of landing on Mars.
In surveying both the parachute that helped Perseverance land on Mars and the cone-shaped backshell that protected the rover in deep space and during its fiery descent toward the surface of the planet, Ingenuity may provide valuable information that could benefit future landings on Mars.
Many of the 80 high-strength suspension lines connecting the backshell to the parachute are visible and appear intact. Spread out and covered in dust, only about a third of the orange-and-white parachute can be seen, but the canopy shows no signs of damage from the supersonic airflow experienced during its inflation. Look closely to spot the shadow cast by Ingenuity while it took the images.
Several weeks of analysis will be needed before a more final verdict can be issued on whether all of the landing support systems functioned as designed—but the results are sure to help guide the future of Martian landings.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
#NASA#Mars#RedPlanet#Martian#Perseverance#Ingenuity#Rover#SolarSystem#Planets#Parachute#Helicopter
Getting a closer look at #Phobos. The #Perseverance#Mars#rover used its powerful Mastcam-Z camera to take this zoomed-in video of Mars’ #moon Phobos as it crossed the #Sun. This solar eclipse lasted a little more than 40 seconds, which is much shorter than a typical solar eclipse involving #Earth’s Moon. This video can help scientists better understand Phobos’ orbit and how its gravity pulls on the interior of Mars, ultimately shaping the #RedPlanet’s crust and mantle. @nasa spacecraft have a long history of capturing solar eclipses on Mars, but Perseverance has provided the most zoomed-in video of a Phobos solar eclipse and at the highest frame rate yet. #science#NASA#JPL
Credit: JPL/NASA @nasajpl
Large boulders the size of small boulders
On April 29, 2021, the 68th Martian day of the mission, our Perseverance Mars rover took in the rocky view in front of Santa Cruz hill in Jezero Crater. This picture is an enhanced-color mosaic of multiple images. It was created using the left- and right-eye views of Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z camera system.
The rover will pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and characterize Mars’s geology and past climate. Perseverance will also be the first to collect and cache samples of Martian rocks, like the ones you see here. These boulders are examples of the kind of rocks the team has called “Ch’al” (pronounced “chesh”), the Navajo word for “frog,” and are about 20 inches (50 centimeters) across on average.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
#astrobiology#Mars#Perseverance#rover#rocks#geology#petrology#Mars2020#space
📍 Where were you when Perseverance made history?
A year ago, NASA’s Perseverance rover made landfall on the surface of Mars. Since then, it has been hard at work investigating the mysteries of our solar system and searching for evidence of ancient alien life.
Weighing roughly 1 ton (1,025 kilograms), Perseverance is the heaviest rover ever to touch down on Mars. The rover has collected the first rock core samples from another planet, served as a base station for Ingenuity, the first helicopter on Mars, and tested MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), the first prototype oxygen generator on the Red Planet.
Perseverance celebrated its first year on Mars learning how to “run”! Well, kind of—it set a new record for the most distance driven by a Mars rover in a single day, traveling almost 1,050 feet (320 meters) on Feb. 14, 2022. This was possible as it performed the entire drive using AutoNav, the self-driving software that allows Perseverance to find its own path around rocks and other obstacles.
Comment below where you were when you found out Perseverance landed safely on Mars 👇
#MoonToMars#NASAPerseverance#Mars#RedPlanet#OTD#rover#Mars2020