On Mars, a unique type of “weed” rolls across the plains of Mars.
These weeds are not plants – they are debris from the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) device. NASA’s Perseverance Vehicle. Percy found many of these remains, and photographed them so engineers could study them.
During Landed on February 18, 2021a number of instrumentation items slowed the spacecraft from 12,500 mph (20,000 km/h) when it first entered. atmosphere of Mars basically zero mph when it’s gently placed on the surface by a sky crane. And it all happened in just seven minutes.
After their work was done, EDL hardware such as parachutes, back covers, heat shields, and sky lifts were all removed from the persistent rover, and crashed into Mars some distance away from the rover so as not to damage it.
Over the past year and a half, the Perseverance Team has found and cataloged about half a dozen suspected EDL debris. The first pieces were discovered on April 16, 2022, when a very bright object was seen in one of the Perseverance Mastcam-Z panoramic images. “The material was given a descriptive name: ‘bright material’,” NASA wrote in the NASA journal. No one knew what it was at the time, but perhaps the rover will take a closer look as it ascends into the delta in the coming weeks. . blog post (Opens in a new tab).
A few months later, perseverance reached a place in the delta, called the Hogwallow Flats. On June 12, 2022, I photographed a mysterious object thought to be a Sky Crane Multilayer Insulation (MLI) piece, made of Kapton Aluminized (PAK) or perforated Mylar, fluttering in the wind like a flag. In the same area, the rover also captured shots of a fast-moving bound ball of a “thread-like substance”. This could be a dacron, a net used in thermal blankets, according to the operations team.
Interestingly, the Hogwallow Flats are more than 1.25 miles (two kilometers) from the EDL Perseverance impact zone. NASA notes that “The Hogwallow Flats appear to be a natural collection point for windblown EDL debris.”
Perseverance helicopter companion cleverness He approached some of the ruins of Electricite du Liban. On April 19, 2022, Ingenuity flew over Perseverance and Parachute’s rear platform crash site, Take high resolution photos of debris.
Such deliberately neglected debris fields are not uncommon on Mars, as landings on the Red Planet are usually fairly violent events. Not Opportunity And Curiosity The roving vehicle also photographed the suspected debris from the EDL.
For now, landing spacecraft safely on Mars is priority number one, but as we continue to plant spacecraft on the planet, researchers need to consider the effects of space debris. “Engineers designing EDL instruments for future missions need to consider (literally) the impact of their designs on Mars and the requirements of the mission,” NASA said.
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