The Perseverance rover took off from Earth on July 30 on board an Atlas 5 rocket. It is now heading towards the planet Mars for a landing scheduled for February 18, 2021. In the meantime, NASA invites you to follow its journey by real time.
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The Mars 2020 mission aims to search for ancient traces of life on the planet Mars by taking samples from its surface. The Perseverance rover used by NASA is the most technologically and scientifically advanced that humanity has ever created. The American space agency provides free of charge to everyone a tool called ” Eyes on the Solar System “. This is simulation software that represents in real time the trajectory of spacecraft in Space, planets, moons, asteroids, etc.
NASA Perseverance: here’s how long the rover could live on Mars
NASA’s tool allows real-time visualization of what’s happening in the Solar System
According to Fernando Abilleira who is responsible for the design and navigation of the Mars 2020 mission, Eyes on the Solar System allows you to visualize “ the same trajectory data used by the navigation team to plot the trajectory from Perseverance to Mars “. You can access the real-time monitoring of the Perseverance rover without downloading the software. You just have to go to l’interface web Eyes.
You can switch between a close-up view of the Rover and a distant view that puts it in the Solar System. You also have the option of viewing the entire Solar System in order to see the different comets that cross it, for example.
Did you know that the Perseverance rover will not land on the surface of Mars on its own in a few months? It shelters indeed under its body a small space helicopter called Ingenuity. The role of the latter is to perform the very first flight over the red planet. He will thus be able to recover telemetry images that astronomers can analyze. On the other hand, Perseverance has been designed and rigorously tested to survive extreme conditions that he will have to endure. Among the panoply of scientific instruments that equip it, two microphones will be used to record the sound during its atmospheric reentry and scientific research.
Source : Phys.org
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