At 146 million miles (235 million km), NASA’s persistence rover is now halfway to Mars.
Although the spacecraft has traveled half the distance required to land on Mars, it is not between Earth and Mars because the journey between the two planets is not in a straight line.
Instead, the rover is approximately 26.6 million miles (42.7 million km) ahead of Earth and 17.9 million miles (28.8 million km) from Mars.
On February 18 next year, Mars will orbit at a speed of 11,900 miles (19,000 km).
At present it takes two minutes and 22 seconds to reach the spacecraft from Earth, but the same transmission will take 11.5 minutes to reach Mars.
This is less than the time between entering and landing on the Martian atmosphere.
By the time Mission Control sees what is happening, the rover will have already landed or destroyed – as most attempts to land on Mars have ended.
NASA hopes the new guidance and parachute-triggering technology will help the rosary avoid these dangers, but its controllers on Earth will be helpless.
After traveling 290 million miles (470 million km), the rover, which weighs 1,050 kilograms (2,313 pounds), can add craters to the planet’s red surface.
If all goes as planned, perseverance will go down in the ancient river delta and the former lake on the surface of Mars.
The rosary is full of obstacles and dangers, including the Jessero crater, rocks, boulders, sand dunes, and depression, which can end the mission on landing and as the rover travels over the surface.
The deposits in the crater are rich in clay minerals, which are formed in the presence of water, which means that life may have once existed there – that is, such debris from the earth is known to hold microscopic fossils.
Scientists also say that the crater does not have a depth commensurate with its diameter, which means that debris is likely to enter the crater through flowing water – up to a kilometer – all of which offer rich selections for signs of ancient life.
NASA says examining ancient life on Mars carries a lot of evidence.
The microbial remains on Mars will leave teal marks on the persistent descending debris layer, but they will be difficult to analyze on the planet itself.
After drilling into the fine rocks, the rover will cache half a kilogram of rock sample in dozens of titanium tubes, which another rover will collect in about a decade.
NASA and the European Space Agency are planning a Mars sample return campaign, during which time these samples can be tested using very large and sophisticated equipment to be sent to Mars.
Perseverance is also equipped A miniature helicopter Ingenuity will be the first rotorcraft to fly in another square weighing just 4 bs (1.8 kg).
“The laws of physics say it’s impossible to fly to Mars, but in reality it’s harder to fly a vehicle heavier than air on a red planet,” the space agency said.
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