The mission is a massive one as it aims to probe the indicators of ancient microbial life in the Jezero Crater. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA Perseverance mission countdown: NASA’s Perseverance Rover is scheduled to land on the surface of Mars in about 12 hours, and the countdown to the a great deal-anticipated occasion has begun. To incorporate science enthusiasts into the course of action, NASA has asked customers to upload videos of their anticipation to the landing as nicely as their reactions to the landing course of action on social media with the tag ‘#CountdownToMars’. While enthusiasts await to witness the live telecast on the landing of Perseverance on the Martian surface, the scientists at NASA are worried about the ‘7 minutes of terror’.
Perseverance is set to enter the Martian atmosphere on February 18 at about 3:48 pm EST or 2:18 am IST on February 19. It requires a spacecraft seven minutes from getting into the leading of the Martian atmosphere to land on its surface, which indicates that the landing is scheduled for 3:55 pm EST or 2:25 am IST on February 19.
These seven minutes, nevertheless, constitute a quite risky time, as NASA is aiming to land the Perseverance rover on the Jezero crater, which is a quite risky and challenging terrain. In order to land correctly, NASA has fitted its probe with a heat shield that drove the spacecraft to the Martian atmosphere, immediately after which a supersonic parachute, the largest one sent to yet another planet however as per NASA, would decelerate the spacecraft. Then, when Perseverance assesses its position and the terrain exactly where it requirements to land, a sky crane would take Perseverance closer to the Martian surface and gently spot it on the surface with the aid of cables.
The mission is a massive one as it aims to probe the indicators of ancient microbial life in the Jezero Crater, which is believed to be a lake bed, and it also aims to stow away rock and samples from the Martian surface to be brought back to Earth later. However, none of this would be attainable if Perseverance is not capable to assess and carry out its landing correctly, created more challenging by the cliffs and the rocks that dot the surface of the Red Planet.
However, the anticipation of these ‘7 minutes of terror’ and the hope that Perseverance would brave them, is what has led to NASA counting down the minutes to the historic landing.