Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing

[apollo16uvc]

Perseverance will land on Mars at:
3:55 PM    Eastern
2:55 PM    Central
1:55 PM    Mountain
12:55 PM  Pacific
8:55 PM   GMT

NASA Live Stream:

I really think this NEEDS to work properly and NOT crash. Such a failure would be a huge demoralization factor for the American people.

Of course the news networks and by extension, the general public never have, never will and do not understand the risks involved. You would not fathom how phenomenally ignorant people are of space exploration.
Cue the news network blathering that space is too hard and a waste, and that we just need to give up on reaching our maximum potential as the sapient species in our solar system, if not our galaxy.

In a rational world, the future of everything following shouldn’t rely on individual missions or shortfalls. Unfortunately that’s how western society works anymore.
“Oh we failed, so now we should just give up”

There’s little more depressing to me than reading comments of anti-space colonization know-it-all’s on YouTube giving endless reasons why we can’t do anything including wipe our own ass- proverbially speaking.

If we can’t bother to live up to and exceed what a prior generation did... then I suppose there would be nothing more to say.

[gillianren]

A friend from high school works for JPL (in the business office, but it still counts), and she clued me into the thing where you can get your name put on it.  So the kids' and my names are going to be on Mars today.

[JayUtah]

Well, that was exciting!

[gillianren]

Simon agrees!  Irene . . . did not entirely understand what was going on.  Simon and I then spent a while discussing the relative distances and how impressive a feat the whole thing was.

[bknight]

Well, that was exciting!

I'll be interested in the videos with sound of the landing.

[bknight]

A friend from high school works for JPL (in the business office, but it still counts), and she clued me into the thing where you can get your name put on it.  So the kids' and my names are going to be on Mars today.

Mine is also on Mars. 

[JayUtah]

NASA TV posted the link for people to do the same to other missions.  My physical signature is on an interior insulation blanket of Echostar IV.  Just my luck, the Klingons will probably blow it up.

In contrast to what apollo16uvc writes about the general public, I like to think that the regulars here have some idea of the complexity of space travel by virtue of participating in the Apollo discussions.  But even with that in mind, the colossal complexity of this type of Mars landing mission is really hard even for some engineers to grasp.  We cross-train all the time.  But still it's a group effort, where every member of the team is a genius.  It really is the case that literally thousands of things all have to happen correctly at the right time.

I love the diversity represented in the NASA reporting.  It's good to be back in an American where lots of ages, sexes, body types, nationalities', and backgrounds contribute.  They all do their work under the American flag.  And I have to agree with the kid who named the rover:  you don't hear a capital rocket launch; you feel it.  All the stuff that happens later is predicated on your mitgation of the launch vehicle's best effort to shake your machinery to pieces on the way up.

[smartcooky]

From 40,000 kmh to being gently lowered to the surface in 6 min 27 seconds.

That bears thinking about for a moment!

[raven]

We are sending robot cars to other planets, and this one has a helicopter and will leave presents for future explorers.
For all the problems in the world right now, I am glad we can do this.

[Peter B]

[snip]

In contrast to what apollo16uvc writes about the general public, I like to think that the regulars here have some idea of the complexity of space travel by virtue of participating in the Apollo discussions.  But even with that in mind, the colossal complexity of this type of Mars landing mission is really hard even for some engineers to grasp.  We cross-train all the time.  But still it's a group effort, where every member of the team is a genius.  It really is the case that literally thousands of things all have to happen correctly at the right time.

[snip]

Regarding the complexity of the hardware, I remember a discussion (I think at UM but I don't remember for sure) where the use of the sky crane was criticised. Wouldn't it be easier and safer, went the argument, to land the rover on a landing platform with an extendable ramp, and simply roll the rover down it. The response was a quick calculation of how large the engines would have to be to softly land the rover plus a platform strong enough to support it, and consequently how high the rover would be off the ground (and how top-heavy the whole assembly), and consequently how long the ramp would have to be...The sky crane sure looks Rube-Goldberg-ish, but it hands down beats any other method available for a rover this massive.

And regarding the complexity of the landing process, I noticed the NASA TV video of the landing showed a check list of about 37 separate events from entry interface to touchdown. It must have been nerve-wracking to watch them getting ticked off one by one.

[smartcooky]

[snip]

In contrast to what apollo16uvc writes about the general public, I like to think that the regulars here have some idea of the complexity of space travel by virtue of participating in the Apollo discussions.  But even with that in mind, the colossal complexity of this type of Mars landing mission is really hard even for some engineers to grasp.  We cross-train all the time.  But still it's a group effort, where every member of the team is a genius.  It really is the case that literally thousands of things all have to happen correctly at the right time.

[snip]

Regarding the complexity of the hardware, I remember a discussion (I think at UM but I don't remember for sure) where the use of the sky crane was criticised. Wouldn't it be easier and safer, went the argument, to land the rover on a landing platform with an extendable ramp, and simply roll the rover down it. The response was a quick calculation of how large the engines would have to be to softly land the rover plus a platform strong enough to support it, and consequently how high the rover would be off the ground (and how top-heavy the whole assembly), and consequently how long the ramp would have to be...The sky crane sure looks Rube-Goldberg-ish, but it hands down beats any other method available for a rover this massive.

And regarding the complexity of the landing process, I noticed the NASA TV video of the landing showed a check list of about 37 separate events from entry interface to touchdown. It must have been nerve-wracking to watch them getting ticked off one by one.

I read read or heard somewhere, perhaps on a TV program, Adam Steltzner, the guy primarily reponsible for the "skycrane" concept that has now successfully delivered two, two ton rovers onto the surface of Mars, say that over a hundred things have to happen in exactly the right order at exactly the right time, the failure of any one of which will cause the landing to fail.

[apollo16uvc]

The microphones were listening during the landing. So maybe we will not just see a landing on an other world, but also HEAR it for the first time in spaceflight history.

That would be something.

Especially with the multitude of angles that were photographed during the landing synced up.

[gillianren]

I've promised Simon that, on the someday trip back to my hometown of Altadena, California, we'll find a way to visit JPL.  I have a friend who works there, so we'll see what we can do.  They'd adopted my junior high, and I was on the campus at least half a dozen times for assorted school stuff even beyond the annual open house.  I may well have sat in the chairs we watched people jumping out of the other day, and I've looked into the clean rooms more than once.

[LunarOrbit]

I've promised Simon that, on the someday trip back to my hometown of Altadena, California, we'll find a way to visit JPL.  I have a friend who works there, so we'll see what we can do.

Take me with you! 

[gillianren]

Hey, if you go at the right time of year, they've got an open house!