After 7 months in flight, NASA's Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, is on schedule to land in Mars's Jezero Crater Thursday morning. This is the most advanced spacecraft ever sent to another planet. Its mission will include, among other things, loading 43 sample vials with Martian soil for return to Earth in a future mission (2024) and attempting the first powered flight ever on another planet with the Ingenuity drone helicopter. It will also perform many astrobiology science experiments, which is its primary mission; to seek out evidence of past life on Mars. There is no better place to do this than the now dried up lake bed of Jezero Crater. Another exciting science mission, also designed to lay the groundwork for future human missions, is
I encourage you to watch this video, which is the best I've viewed so far, to better understand how all of this is was and will be achieved. This YouTuber worked for 7 years on the only active Mars rover right now, Curiosity.
Here's a fantastic video introducing the Ingenuity helicopter and its tech demonstration mission.
More info on the Ingenuity helicopter:
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/
The official NASA mission website with live landing event links and spacecraft flight tracker:
mars.nasa.gov
NASA's mission control has the cruise stage and decent/landing responsibility. However, once Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory takes over the mission. This is where all the rover drivers, Jezero Crater mock up, and exact rover replica are located, as well as many of the mission scientists. Here is their official mission website:
www.jpl.nasa.gov
Jezero Crater map and "Where's the Rover?" web page:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/where-is-the-rover/
As you can see from the terrain, there was a healthy amount of water flowing through this lake inlet area a few billion years ago and a lot of sediment from the river's inflow.
If you are lazy, dumb, both, or named @Conurock, @dennyb64, @blackgold74, or @MUTiger91, I'd suggest this shorter, more 4th grade level video from JPL.
I encourage you to watch this video, which is the best I've viewed so far, to better understand how all of this is was and will be achieved. This YouTuber worked for 7 years on the only active Mars rover right now, Curiosity.
Here's a fantastic video introducing the Ingenuity helicopter and its tech demonstration mission.
More info on the Ingenuity helicopter:
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/
The official NASA mission website with live landing event links and spacecraft flight tracker:
Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover - NASA Science
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover seeks signs of ancient life and collects samples of rock and regolith for possible Earth return.
mars.nasa.gov
NASA's mission control has the cruise stage and decent/landing responsibility. However, once Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory takes over the mission. This is where all the rover drivers, Jezero Crater mock up, and exact rover replica are located, as well as many of the mission scientists. Here is their official mission website:
Mars 2020 - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Mars 2020 mission with its Perseverance rover is the first step of a roundtrip journey to return Mars samples to Earth for further study.
Jezero Crater map and "Where's the Rover?" web page:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/where-is-the-rover/
As you can see from the terrain, there was a healthy amount of water flowing through this lake inlet area a few billion years ago and a lot of sediment from the river's inflow.
If you are lazy, dumb, both, or named @Conurock, @dennyb64, @blackgold74, or @MUTiger91, I'd suggest this shorter, more 4th grade level video from JPL.
