Perseverance Landing on Mars

Real World Aviation
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Perseverance

Landing a Rover (and a drone) on Mars

On July 30th, 2020, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover left planet earth for its journey to the Red Planet. Today, after months of traveling through space, it‘s due to arrive at its destination.

One of the coolest things about this rover: It brings Aviation to Mars! The rover is carries a little drone which will be flying over the Mars surface. We‘ll get to see some beautiful and never-seen imagery of the planet - if everything goes well.

The spacecraft will enter the atmosphere at an incredible speed of 20‘000 kilometers per hour and go through 7 Minutes of Terror before it will hopefully land safely on the Mars surface. It‘s the most dangerous landing ever attempted on Mars and an incredible work of science and engineering.

Timeline for Today

  • 2038Z: Cruise Stage Separation
  • 2048Z: Atmospheric Entry
  • 2049Z: Peak Heating
  • 2052Z: Parachute Away and Heat Shield Separation
  • 2054Z: Back Shell Separation
  • 2055Z: Touchdown

Radio signals need 11 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth. We won‘t know if the rover made it to the ground safely for that amount of time after touch down.

There will be a NASA Livestream starting at 1915Z:

Good luck, Perseverance! Say Hi to Opportunity and Curiosity while you‘re there!

Sources:

61 Likes
2021 | The Space Age
#2

Adding to the videos in the post, Mark Rober did an amazing video explaining and showing everything about the mission, from a second rover on earth for troubleshooting to the landing

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#3

Ok, so I’ll waste my 4G that I don’t have to watch it on my school van live. It’s worth it

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#4

Very nice and informative topic Marc!
I’m looking forward to the landing footage we will hopefully see a few days later if all goes well.

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#5

Probably the third most exciting livestream after Starship SN8 and Model 3 reveal!!

#6

And this, exactly right here, will be the 7 minutes of hell the people at NASA, JPL and everyone else who put this rover together will dread the most.

Then again, don’t take risks, don’t reap the rewards.

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#7

I’ll be watching! Hope it all goes well!

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#8

@Marc , it is 12minutes (according to Mark Rober)

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#9

I head about this a few days ago. I will definitely be watching at 3:55pm for that touchdown on the red planet :)

#10

Here we go!

#11

This is exciting 🚀

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#12

Did it start?

#13

Official NASA Livestream is Live → View Here. We’re approximately T-Minus 1 Hour till landing

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#14

Thanks for making me aware of this, I have had very little to do over the past few days because of the weather where I am, so this will be something fun and exciting!

#15

Can’t wait to watch the stream!

Turned it on and my mother instantly complained of it disrupting her program because we are in the same room… lol

I’ll just watch it at the more vital moments.

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#16

I’m watching the broadcast on TV right now.

#17

Mars 2020 Entry Descent Landing (nasa.gov)

You can watch it in 3D animation, real time too!

#18

Soon!

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#19

If you’re waiting for a moment to tune in… Now’s the time

Stage Separation in T-Minus 1 minute. Then we’ll be on the ground within the next 20 minutes

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#20

What channel on the TV?

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