Perseverance Rover has successfully landed on Mars

Source: First post

In News: Perseverance Rover Sent by NASA has successfully landed on Mars.

• It will take the work of Curiosity Rover ahead by trying to access ‘Habitability’ of Mars.
  • It will explore the possibility of Underground Water, try to produce Oxygen and test Mars Helicopters.
  • It also has an objective to bring Martian samples in 43 tubes back to earth.
  • Curiosity had found the nutrients and energy sources that microbes could have used.
• Perseverance has sent the first images of Jezero Crater.
• Other missions which recently reached Mars orbit were Amal (Hope Mission by UAE) and Tianwen-1 (by China).

Objectives of Perseverance and Major Instruments carried

• 4 major Objectives of Perseverance are
  • Geology: Study the rocks and landscape at its landing site to reveal the region’s history
  • Astrobiology: Determine whether an area of interest was suitable for life, and look for signs of ancient life itself
  • Sample Caching: Find and collect promising samples of Mars rock and soil that could be brought back to Earth in the future
  • Prepare for Humans: Test technologies that would help sustain human presence on Mars someday
• Seven Major Instruments are being carried by Perseverance.
  • Mastcam-Z: A camera with advanced panoramic, stereoscopic and zoom capability.
    • It can help to assess the mineralogy of the Martian surface
    • It will assist with rover operations
  • Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA): A set of sensors to provide measurements of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity and dust size and shape.
  • Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE):  An exploration technology to produce oxygen from Martian atmospheric CO2.
  • Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL): It will determine the fine-scale chemical and elemental composition of Martian surface materials.
  • Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX):  It is a ground-penetrating radar to provide centimetre-scale resolution of the geologic structure of the subsurface.
  • Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC): A spectrometer to determine fine-scale mineralogy and detect organic compounds.
    • SHERLOC is the first UV Raman spectrometer to fly to the surface of Mars.
    • It will provide complementary measurements with other instruments in the payload.
  • SuperCam: An instrument that can provide imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy
    • It can detect the presence of organic compounds in rocks and regolith from a distance.
    • This instrument was developed in collaboration with the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (CNES/IRAP), France.

What are technical difficulties and steps of landing on Mars?

• During Launch
  • The mars and earth line up every 26 months due to difference in their speeds, elliptical orbits and orbital diameters.
  • That is there is only one launch window every 26 months.
• During landing: 7 minutes of terror

Source: First Post

• • Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) challenge begins when the spacecraft carrying Perseverance strikes the Martian atmosphere.
    • The velocity is nearly 12,500 miles per hour (20,000 kilometres per hour) at this moment.
    • It lasts for 7 minutes.
  • Five major steps to be crossed for successful EDL challenge are as follows:
    • Atmospheric entry:  The spacecraft sheds its cruise stage and left with just a protective Aeroshell.
      • At about 80 miles (130 kilometres) altitude, heat shield surface reaches 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,300 degrees Celsius)
      • fire thrusters keep it on course as it hits air pockets.
    • Parachute deployment: Once the spacecraft has slowed down to less than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) per hour, the 70.5 feet (21.5 m) wide supersonic parachute is deployed at an altitude of seven miles (11 km).
      • A new technology called Range Trigger has been deployed on Perseverance.
    • Heatshield separation: Around 20 seconds after parachute deployment, the Heat Shield is detached.
      • “Terrain Relative Navigation” (TRN) system becomes eyes of Rover and scans for the precise landing site
    • Powered descent: As the atmosphere on Mars is thin, rocket thrusters are required to further slow down the descent of rovers.
    • Skycrane: When height is merely 66 feet (20m) and with just 12 seconds remaining in touchdown, the rover is lowered using long cables called Skycrane.
      • Once Rover locks its legs and wheels, the descent stage flies off and makes its own controlled landing.
• About 60% of all Mars missions have ended in failure.
  • Reasons behind failures:
    • Crashing.
    • Burning up.
    • Falling short in the testament to the complexity of interplanetary travel.
    • Failure during the descent through Mars’ thin atmosphere.

Major successful Mars Missions

• At present, a total of 8 satellites (3 US, 2 Europe, 1 Indian, 1 China and 1 UAE) are revolving around Mars.
• Only two landers are at present operational on the Mars i.e. InSight and Curiosity of NASA excluding Perseverance.

Benefits of Mars Mission

• Space Diplomacy: The quest to win space is picking up and India also needs to set up to create its own hegemony.
• Mineral Resources: It may be a vital source of minerals in future.
• Deep Space Communication Network: Mars satellites may act as a node for establishing a communication link for far space exploration.
• Origin of Life and Planetary System: It may help in understanding how the solar system came into existence. Curiosity rover found traces of water and nutrients.
  • When life evolved on earth nearly 3.8 billion years ago, conditions on Mars were roughly the same.
  • It also had a thick atmosphere and stable water on its surface.
• The catalyst for innovation: Many space technologies are now in common parlance and popularised by ISRO.
• Chances of Human Habitation in Future: It is only planet humans can visit or inhabit in long term due to the following reasons:
  • Venus and Mercury have extreme temperatures. The average temperature is greater than 400 C, or hotter than a cooking oven.
  • All planets in the outer solar system starting with Jupiter are made of gas (not silicates or rocks) and are very cold.
  • Mars is comparatively hospitable in terms of temperature.
    • It has temperature in an approximate range between 20 degrees C at the Equator to minus 125 degrees C at the poles.

Criticism of Mars Mission

• Wastage of money which could have been used to Solve Hunger and Poverty problems.
• Hasty and Less effective: Too many Mars Missions and space race has led to wastage of resources.
• Space Debris: Nearly 60 percent of missions have failed, leading to a large number of pieces floating in space.

Source: IE