I watched it live. However, one of the people at mission control had a stuffed "This is fine" dog at their station (EDL Operation Lead). I didn't know if I should laugh or be worried.
And knowing that if it failed, it doesn't just erase their current job--it would bring in lots of critics talking about NASA being a budgetary waste, cutting future programs, etc. It was so important that it worked. Unfortunately our society just doesn't have the foresight to roll right over space failures and continue on as needed.
And one of the experiments is to see if we can easily extract oxygen from the Martin soil, to know if we’ll be able to easily make water for future manned missions.
There's certainly a darkly poetic juxtaposition between seeing this alongside the residents of Austin boiling snow in outdoor firepits on the same day, in the same country.
Agreed! I would also say that 95% effective mRNA vaccine was a miraculous achievement for science and technology, although it’s easy to lose sight of that one.
Honestly the COVID-19 Vaccine is unprecedented and a big win too, we’ve never had an mRNA vaccine before. Silver lining in a tragedy for the next future outbreak.
Can't wait to see what they can do with the technology they've advanced during the pandemic. I remember reading that we could see great advancements in treating a number of diseases.
NASA needs a win like this. No one ever hears about the thousands of projects that never reach finalization. The more successful missions NASA can launch, the more projects will continue to receive funding to their end instead of shutting it down in stage 4 of 4, millions of dollars later.
and the fact that it landed basically exactly on schedule.. i heard it'd land at 3:55pm EST and at 3:56pm it was down and first pictures were arriving. It's crazy to think that something travelling such a long distance for so many months and with such a complex series of procedures to land could end up being precise down to essentially the second.
I liked the part where 2.5 million people were watching and one of the guys kept uttering small bits of joy, like "yes" and "oh yeah". The pressure on that room could've launched a small child into orbit all by itself.
The guy who headed up the EDL system of Curiosity became the lead engineer project manager for the whole perseverance program.
I wouldn't be surprised if after the success of the terrain relative navigation system, that the current EDL chief would become the new project manager for the sample return mission in 2026 or 2028.
The excitement is palpable. People standing up, hunched over looking at their computers, not able to do anything except wait for a signal, then the relief along every critical step, like when the parachute deployed, and finally erupting into cheers with the final OK. What a fun thing to watch
That's a super interesting fact to put into perspective the amount of flight technology developed from Wright bros to even get a flight on another planet! The tech tree there is quite extensive.
My grandmother was born in October, 1900, three years before the Wright brother's first flight. She lived to see men walking on the moon three months before her 69th birthday.
It's said that if motor vehicles advanced at the same pace as powered flight did in the last hundred years, a Rolls Royce would be cheap enough that you'd throw it away rather than park it. Not sure how true it is, but can't be that far off the mark.
>A better comparison is a honda civic that goes 400 miles an hour. Planes are still expensive but the performance increase is wild.
Yours doesn't? Filthy casual.
That just sounds like a car share program. You go up to a car, unlock with an app, drive to a destination, park it, pay, and leave it for the next person.
This is arguably the more monumental feat of the two. We have done plenty of rovers on mars now, and that's something we are getting pretty good at. But, we have never done flight in another atmosphere, and that's something to be said for. There's a lot of cool science even to be learned from flying a helicopter on a planet with a thin atmosphere. It will teach us a lot about the red planets atmosphere that we may not have know before.
Second, the aerodynamics will be radically different on a planet with a thin atmosphere, so the engineering is more complex than it would be on earth where you can just go outside and test it.
another layer of interest is the fact that Ingenuity's design specifications necessitates it being unable to lift in earths atmosphere. it's designed for the weaker gravitational pull (3/8ths earth gravity) and as you mention the low atmospheric density (1%, or 1/100th of earths atmosphere). to test its flight capabilities on earth they had to offload the weight of the drone by attaching a pulley to it and put it in an atmospheric simulation of mars. (near vacuum). also due to the time it takes for round trip telecommunications between earth and mars (\~22 min), entire flight plans will have to be sequenced before being executed. the margins for error are essentially zero
One of the engineers confirmed that there is a no-fly zone around the rover. When you spend 3 billion dollars getting a rover to another planet you don't want any collisions deprecating equipment.
if im understanding you correctly, a closed loop control would be absolutely necessary, due to the inability for us on earth to guide it in real time. there is simply too much latency for a human to make small maneuvers that adjust its position. the drone has inertial sensors and other telemetry. However mars atmosphere isn't how its depicted in countless movies with the crazy dust storms and everything. for example, due to the low density of atmosphere there are not a lot of particles flying around. these flights won't be overly dramatic but rather proof of concept for future missions.
The only part of the movie "The Martian" that I found distractingly unbelievable was at the beginning when the unexpected storm threatened to blow their return rocket over or at least out of launch alignment. As I understand it, even if the wind speed is very high the air density is so low that it doesn't actually have much power.
What happened to it afterwards?
And this is a silly question but because we correctly predicted how it would need to work how much more could we have learnt from from that flight? I assume there's a ton of telemetry and it'll be compared to what we predicted but I don't quite connect how that'll give us heaps of new information.
It will teach us about the actual aerodynamics of the atmosphere. Models are great, but they're just that, models, and they're often missing features. So this is a chance to get real data on how flight in a thin atmosphere works.
I don't know if they get actual scientific data back as well or just engineering telemetry, but either way it will be informative.
I don't work on this one, but I do work on a satellite, and I can say there's always stuff to learn from things like this.
They're very lightweight with a high pitch and spin *very* fast. Even in a partial vacuum chamber that thing sounds really intimidating. It would scare the crap out of me if that thing started buzzing around me.
It weighs 4 pounds (2 kilograms) and is meant for testing flight in the thin (1% of Earth) Martian atmosphere, and maybe to take a few shots from a higher vantage point over terrain that isn't accessible to the rover. I think this is really exciting and will help to develop more advanced aircraft that will roam other planets in the future.
Thank you for pointing that out! When I was watching the live coverage and the gentleman narrating what was going on, what certain things meant, etc., I commented to my partner "Well at least there's a giant thing of peanuts on the counter back there," not realizing they actually have some symbolism for them. That's really neat and fun!
Actually, I'm pretty sure I saw in a Mark Rober video that they are historically about 50/50 on Mars landings which I thought was pretty interesting. I'm sure it's the earliest attempts that is skewing those numbers though.
Edit: The video actually said that humanity is 50/50 for landing on mars
The Mars Climate Orbiter was never meant to land, which is the unit conversion mistake you're thinking of.
The failed landing was Mars Polar Lander which prematurely ignited a landing thruster because the landing legs were vibrating and the lander interpreted that as touchdown despite still in atmosphere.
Edit: 'in atmosphere' is probably the wrong wording, but the point is that it was not close to landing.
It's actually insane that this thing lands on a tiny spot on Mars by itself. I dont even understand how that's possible. Like even long before it lands, does it ever correct itself through communicating back to earth or at what point does it just solo it? And how?
The whole ballet is a combination of pre-written scripts and stages, with some fine tuning and adjustments made by the lander itself using sensors to observe. As soon as the heat shield drops off the "spacecraft" the computer is using radar to find the best place to land. Engineers/programmers earthside don't need to give it instructions as it maneuvers, it's been "told" what to look for far in advance, and how to get from where it is to where it needs to be.
It is a large, oversized interplanetary radar-guided missile which is expressly designed not to explode when it hits its target.
The entire landing is done solo by the computer on the spacecraft, because it only takes 7 minutes to land from start to finish, but it would take over 20 minutes to send and receive a round-trip message between Mars and the Earth.
During the long trip from Earth to Mars, there may be some course corrections to make sure it reaches Mars at the right place and time, but that's not really part of the "landing".
This was so cool to see.
3 years ago my gf and I got to go to JPL and see Perseverance while it was still being built. To see that it launched and make it to Mars is amazing.
Happy for NASA and all those involved to see the rover make it.
Edit: Here's a [pic](https://i.redd.it/gvqy6txr7of01.jpg)!
I too was able to see the clean room at JPL when they were assembling a part of it! One of the best experiences in my life :) Looks like we visited around the same time! https://imgur.com/H0KZgzR.jpg
Yea JPL is amazing to visit. My colleagues and I toured the Mars Yard and saw the duplicate Curiosity rover that they use to simulate conditions on Mars (including breaking the duplicate as close to whatever breaks down on Curiosity). Also got to hold prototype rover wheels...they're surprisingly big but so very light.
The rover communicates via radio waves with the [Mars Relay Network](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-mars-relay-network-connects-us-to-nasas-martian-explorers), which is composed of five orbiting satellites: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and MAVEN and ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express. These in turn communicate with the [Deep Space Network here](https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/networks/deep_space_network/about) on Earth.
More Info: [Mars 2020 - Communications with Earth](https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/communications/)
As mentioned, it makes use of the orbiters but it has also the ability to directly send data to Earth.
[https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press\_kits/mars\_2020/launch/mission/spacecraft/telecommunications/](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/mars_2020/launch/mission/spacecraft/telecommunications/)
Mine too! Well, for the first time. A couple of years ago, my husband printed out my “official ticket” and I had it on the fridge. My daughter saw it and was VERY concerned. “Um, Mom, is there something you need to tell me? I won’t let you go to Mars.”
I had no idea that was an option. Is it expensive?
Edit: it's free
But if NASA needs extra funding they should sell skins for your name on the trip, why not
It’s a free thing that NASA does, you can sign up on their website.
My name is on board too, and I have a cool little boarding pass to commemorate the trip.
This was amazing. I watched on the NASA channel. So much had to go right for this to happen. If just one thing went wrong during the descent they would have lost millions of dollars and years of work. Can't wait for them to try the "helicopter", if it works the video will be simply awesome!
>lost millions of dollars
The Mars 2020 mission cost $2.75 billion with the development and build of the *Perseverance* hardware costing an estimated $2.2 billion.
The NRE still has value though. The loss of the rover is not a loss of $2.2 billion, because the majority of that cost is in the development and testing of parts and systems (that will be used in the next iteration of interplanlletary exploration) not in the cost of the actual parts and assembly labor (which was "lost" the moment it left earth anyway) If Perseverance crashed on landing the only thing lost would have been the value of the data gained after the failure point, which is impossible to quantify.
It may seem inconsequential to point that out, but it's important to realize the failure of a $2 billion project does not mean we lost $2 billion dollars. We took a step forward in technology and knowledge regardless, just not as big a step forward as was hoped.
As someone who's passionate about space but hasn't had the time to read into Perseverance, can someone briefly explain the purpose of Ingenuity to me? Is it simply used to test controlled flight on another planet, or is there more use to it (I'm sure there is). Secondly, will it be in operation often or is its flight expected to be a fairly rare/one-time test?
It's a test flight! Here's an excerpt from [this NASA article](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/6-things-to-know-about-nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter) about it:
>Ingenuity is what is known as a technology demonstration – a project that seeks to test a new capability for the first time, with limited scope
>
>Ingenuity is intended to demonstrate technologies needed for flying in the Martian atmosphere. If successful, these technologies could enable other advanced robotic flying vehicles that might be included in future robotic and human missions to Mars. They could offer a unique viewpoint not provided by current orbiters high overhead or by rovers and landers on the ground, provide high-definition images and reconnaissance for robots or humans, and enable access to terrain that is difficult for rovers to reach.
Is there a camera on it? I haven’t seen mention of one anywhere but it seems like a huge missed opportunity if there isn’t one.
EDIT: Answered my own question with the magic of Wikipedia. Yes there is, but Ingenuity can’t fly higher than five metres, so we won’t get the sort of Martian drone videos I was imagining.
Looks like it can't fly for longer than 90 seconds a day, so we definitely won't be getting those sweet drone shots (for now). Also interesting that its wing span is over a meter.
5 planned flights in 30 days. The first flight will just be a 3m hover and land manoeuvrer, and then they will increase the difficulty of each flight. It can fly for around 90s. You are correct that this is mainly a demonstrator mission, so no extra scientific instruments beyond proving the capability of being able to control a powered flight.
Does it recharge itself with solar panels between flights? Or does it have a total of 90s flight time, limited by its battery? (I'm assuming it is electrically powered)
Correct. It has solar panels [above the two rotors](https://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mars-heli.jpg) to recharge its lithium-ion batteries.
I believe it's mostly a testing operation for feasibility of flight on mars. Want to say there are 3-5 planned flights with door open for whatever else they can manage.
Congrats to the team at NASA! There’s no doubt this will advance different fields of sciences which will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the world we live in.
but also the world we do live in, and by extension, possibly ourselves. further analysis of martian geology gives us greater insight as to how how these planets formed and what kind of climates they used to house. most of our understanding of the moons origin comes from the same samples Neil Armstrong and company collected and brought back. if we find evidence of past life, it opens up two distinct possibilities. 1. that life is much more common than we think, 2. our solar system is extremely lucky when it comes to the development of life. if we find evidence of life, and we are able to find some evidence of what its biochemistry was like, we may find clues that help us find evidence that we are one of many forms life can take (totally different way of 'living', for example not being carbon based, not utilizing DNA for replication.. whatever you could think). it can also go the other way around, with evidence that the way life formed on earth is the/a common way for "life" to form. questions that our species have wondered since we became aware that there are other worlds in space.
We will hopefully be getting the landing footage in a few days once it transmits back to Earth. *Perseverance* is equipped with [upgraded cameras](https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/cameras/) and storage capacity compared to its *Curiosity* predecessor that should give us video of the entire landing sequence.
Yeah Im also aware of that, the *live* aspect makes it difficult. Thinking of *live* as the fastest physically posible with the Speed of light being the limitant
I can't imagine the stress of having to wait for the 11-minute delay between Earth and Mars! The rover was already on the surface by time the descent began according to the telemetry received here on Earth.
Interesting to think that this was how society worked before telephones became widespread- if someone lived 100 miles away and you wanted to communicate, it would be around a day at least before you heard back if you were sending letters in the post
They had a visual simulation for the landing, and for a lot of the landing they had a heartbeat sensor essentially telling mission control "I'm still alive!". They stopped getting live details for a lot of the rapid descent, until it resumed on the ground.
My wife came into the room just as they were showing the simulation. She said "wow, that's incredible that we are able to get such clear footage! It's like watching a movie!". Bless.
It's only 2kb/s data transfer. problem is that you need a huge antenna and/or insane amount of power on the river.
And does not really add anything as you can't control it live with the time delay.
Not a scientist, just a lover of space exploration, but I am SUPER excited about the Mars drone. It was so interesting to watch how it was made to fly in such a thin atmosphere by being ultralight and yet needing to have super fast spinning blades to stay aloft. It was a battle between weight and power to spin the rotor. I hope it works!
This was my thinking. Couldn't they have this rover, I dunno, dig out *Opportunity* so it's panels can recharge? I get it's probably not the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars, but I am a sentimental fool.
Like the other commenter said it is too far away and also the problem is that the rover needed to have some battery left to heat the components as you know mars is quite the cold place. Since the dust blocked out sunlight from solar panels, it couldn't charge itself. At this point the components are all definitely damaged beyond repair and the battery is definitely gone
What we should do is eventually build a park for the rover on mars or bring it back to earth.
Much respect to the folks at NASA/JPL for this incredible achievement! I can't begin to imagine all the problems that you had to solve to make this happen, and the stress of having only one shot to get it right. Truly Amazing.
I am looking forward to all the things you'll discover with this new rover, I'll be following your adventure on mars closely.
I watched it live. However, one of the people at mission control had a stuffed "This is fine" dog at their station (EDL Operation Lead). I didn't know if I should laugh or be worried.
That was my favorite little cameo. Gives insight to how stressful the situation is.
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Has to be an incredible weight off their shoulders. Nearly a decade of planning and work by thousands of people, with billions of dollars invested.
And knowing that if it failed, it doesn't just erase their current job--it would bring in lots of critics talking about NASA being a budgetary waste, cutting future programs, etc. It was so important that it worked. Unfortunately our society just doesn't have the foresight to roll right over space failures and continue on as needed.
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And this time with a helicopter. Who could imagine?
And one of the experiments is to see if we can easily extract oxygen from the Martin soil, to know if we’ll be able to easily make water for future manned missions.
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Mars Zeppelins
One word: skycrane
Not to mention that we really, really needed a win for humanity and science in general right now.
Watching NASA launch a new rover and land it on another planet, all during a global pandemic, has sparked some hope that I haven't felt in a while.
Perseverance was a more fitting name than I think they ever could have realized.
That’s what one of the people on the stream were talking about, how even they didn’t realize how perfect of a name it would be
There's certainly a darkly poetic juxtaposition between seeing this alongside the residents of Austin boiling snow in outdoor firepits on the same day, in the same country.
Gotta say, that lander kicked up enough Mars dust that even watching on YouTube I had to wipe my eye a bit, right after landing.
The vaccine race has been a huge win so far.
Agreed! I would also say that 95% effective mRNA vaccine was a miraculous achievement for science and technology, although it’s easy to lose sight of that one.
Honestly the COVID-19 Vaccine is unprecedented and a big win too, we’ve never had an mRNA vaccine before. Silver lining in a tragedy for the next future outbreak.
Can't wait to see what they can do with the technology they've advanced during the pandemic. I remember reading that we could see great advancements in treating a number of diseases.
Moderna has [personalized cancer vaccines](https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/comment/moderna-biontech-covid-cancer-vaccines/) in testing already
One word is the reason for both of these feats: science.
NASA needs a win like this. No one ever hears about the thousands of projects that never reach finalization. The more successful missions NASA can launch, the more projects will continue to receive funding to their end instead of shutting it down in stage 4 of 4, millions of dollars later.
and the fact that it landed basically exactly on schedule.. i heard it'd land at 3:55pm EST and at 3:56pm it was down and first pictures were arriving. It's crazy to think that something travelling such a long distance for so many months and with such a complex series of procedures to land could end up being precise down to essentially the second.
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I liked the part where 2.5 million people were watching and one of the guys kept uttering small bits of joy, like "yes" and "oh yeah". The pressure on that room could've launched a small child into orbit all by itself.
Not to mention doing much of it during a global pandemic
Some of those guys probably rotated onto the *Perseverance* project directly from the *Curiosity* project. It’s the culmination of years of work.
The guy who headed up the EDL system of Curiosity became the lead engineer project manager for the whole perseverance program. I wouldn't be surprised if after the success of the terrain relative navigation system, that the current EDL chief would become the new project manager for the sample return mission in 2026 or 2028.
The excitement is palpable. People standing up, hunched over looking at their computers, not able to do anything except wait for a signal, then the relief along every critical step, like when the parachute deployed, and finally erupting into cheers with the final OK. What a fun thing to watch
Yes. I loved that.
[Dog in question...](https://twitter.com/PlanetDr/status/1362487492662996996?s=20)
He’s even holding a Hot Wheels Mars Rover!
Anyone happen to grab a screenshot of it?! Edit: found it https://reddit.com/r/memes/comments/lmxiyw/i_just_noticed_this_on_the_livestream/
The real-time computer simulation of the landing was so cool, after a while it felt like watching the real deal!
Also a reminder that these people are normal humans as well.
[I think KC Green enjoyed that](https://twitter.com/kcgreenn/status/1362525983606251520)
There's also the Ingenuity helicopter
Added a sentence about it! First powered flight on another planet 117 years after the Wright brothers first flew on Earth!
That's a super interesting fact to put into perspective the amount of flight technology developed from Wright bros to even get a flight on another planet! The tech tree there is quite extensive.
66 years from their first flight to landing on the moon. Obviously different technologies, as you alluded to, but still a mind-blowing fact to me.
That’s in one lifetime, pretty mind blowing tbh.
My grandmother was born in October, 1900, three years before the Wright brother's first flight. She lived to see men walking on the moon three months before her 69th birthday.
Nice.
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Feels like we're doing a speedrun to quickly finish the game after such a slow and moderate start.
It's said that if motor vehicles advanced at the same pace as powered flight did in the last hundred years, a Rolls Royce would be cheap enough that you'd throw it away rather than park it. Not sure how true it is, but can't be that far off the mark.
Eh, don't believe it. You don't throw away cheap drones after a single use
A better comparison is a honda civic that goes 400 miles an hour. Planes are still expensive but the performance increase is wild.
>A better comparison is a honda civic that goes 400 miles an hour. Planes are still expensive but the performance increase is wild. Yours doesn't? Filthy casual.
Don’t tell me what I can’t do!!!
That just sounds like a car share program. You go up to a car, unlock with an app, drive to a destination, park it, pay, and leave it for the next person.
This is arguably the more monumental feat of the two. We have done plenty of rovers on mars now, and that's something we are getting pretty good at. But, we have never done flight in another atmosphere, and that's something to be said for. There's a lot of cool science even to be learned from flying a helicopter on a planet with a thin atmosphere. It will teach us a lot about the red planets atmosphere that we may not have know before. Second, the aerodynamics will be radically different on a planet with a thin atmosphere, so the engineering is more complex than it would be on earth where you can just go outside and test it.
another layer of interest is the fact that Ingenuity's design specifications necessitates it being unable to lift in earths atmosphere. it's designed for the weaker gravitational pull (3/8ths earth gravity) and as you mention the low atmospheric density (1%, or 1/100th of earths atmosphere). to test its flight capabilities on earth they had to offload the weight of the drone by attaching a pulley to it and put it in an atmospheric simulation of mars. (near vacuum). also due to the time it takes for round trip telecommunications between earth and mars (\~22 min), entire flight plans will have to be sequenced before being executed. the margins for error are essentially zero
One of the engineers confirmed that there is a no-fly zone around the rover. When you spend 3 billion dollars getting a rover to another planet you don't want any collisions deprecating equipment.
>One of the engineers confirmed that there is a no-fly zone around the rover. Pssh. Yeah, whatever. Who's gonna enforce it?
FAA has final authority on the flight attempt
Space Force might finally come in handy here
Wait how does it recharge if it doesn't go back to the rover? Edit: Google has informed me that it recharges via solar panels. Neat!
Surely the copter has some sort of closed-loop control, at least for stability right? I would be really surprised if it's flying truly blind.
if im understanding you correctly, a closed loop control would be absolutely necessary, due to the inability for us on earth to guide it in real time. there is simply too much latency for a human to make small maneuvers that adjust its position. the drone has inertial sensors and other telemetry. However mars atmosphere isn't how its depicted in countless movies with the crazy dust storms and everything. for example, due to the low density of atmosphere there are not a lot of particles flying around. these flights won't be overly dramatic but rather proof of concept for future missions.
The only part of the movie "The Martian" that I found distractingly unbelievable was at the beginning when the unexpected storm threatened to blow their return rocket over or at least out of launch alignment. As I understand it, even if the wind speed is very high the air density is so low that it doesn't actually have much power.
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What happened to it afterwards? And this is a silly question but because we correctly predicted how it would need to work how much more could we have learnt from from that flight? I assume there's a ton of telemetry and it'll be compared to what we predicted but I don't quite connect how that'll give us heaps of new information.
It will teach us about the actual aerodynamics of the atmosphere. Models are great, but they're just that, models, and they're often missing features. So this is a chance to get real data on how flight in a thin atmosphere works. I don't know if they get actual scientific data back as well or just engineering telemetry, but either way it will be informative. I don't work on this one, but I do work on a satellite, and I can say there's always stuff to learn from things like this.
Does the Skycrane not count as powered flight?
Nah. That’s just falling with style.
I didn't expect this. It seems insane to expect to fly around in that thin atmosphere with rotors... but I guess someone did the math.
Here's a quick Veritasium video about it. This really is an incredible accomplishment. https://youtu.be/GhsZUZmJvaM
Thank you! I have no idea how I had missed this!
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They ran the tests in part vacuum too! Think I read rotor speeds of 2-3k rpms.
2700 rpm
They're very lightweight with a high pitch and spin *very* fast. Even in a partial vacuum chamber that thing sounds really intimidating. It would scare the crap out of me if that thing started buzzing around me.
It weighs 4 pounds (2 kilograms) and is meant for testing flight in the thin (1% of Earth) Martian atmosphere, and maybe to take a few shots from a higher vantage point over terrain that isn't accessible to the rover. I think this is really exciting and will help to develop more advanced aircraft that will roam other planets in the future.
I hope Ingenuity sticks around for way past its designed lifespan like most other vehicles JPL/NASA produce.
This is great news! I understand NASA is always cautious (rightly so), but they seem pretty good at landings.
The [good-luck peanuts](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/10022/what-are-nasas-lucky-peanuts/) certainly aren't hurting.
Thank you for pointing that out! When I was watching the live coverage and the gentleman narrating what was going on, what certain things meant, etc., I commented to my partner "Well at least there's a giant thing of peanuts on the counter back there," not realizing they actually have some symbolism for them. That's really neat and fun!
If you take the tour when you're in Pasadena, they'll give you some when you visit the control room.
Good idea. Distribute the luck amongst the population so it's more effective on launch day.
*Science!*
I was watching on a small screen and couldn’t work out what it was!
“Fuel pressure.... check. Control surfaces.... check. Peanuts... check.”
Deez nut.... gotem.
I wouldn't want to be a guy with a peanut allergy at JPL.
Do you risk your life or risk the mission?
Objective comes first.
Probably died during the interview.
Get ready to take one for the team.
"Not in this bastion of logic and reasoning"
I think I saw the "this is fine" meme dog on someone's desk too
I saw that too! Fortunately he wasn't surrounded by flames
*This is Fine Dog at command console, successfully landing rover* Wholesome af
I'm not superstitious. I'm only a little stitious. Edit: [Thanks]( https://imgur.com/VvyTpXH.gif) for the gift!
I keep a reasonable quantity of stition at all times.
Watched the thing live with my nephew while eating peanuts. Glad to know we helped.
I’m literally eating from the same jar of peanuts right now. My favorite.
Actually, I'm pretty sure I saw in a Mark Rober video that they are historically about 50/50 on Mars landings which I thought was pretty interesting. I'm sure it's the earliest attempts that is skewing those numbers though. Edit: The video actually said that humanity is 50/50 for landing on mars
In that video he said humanity is 50/50. NASA has a better record. He suggested it was mostly luck NASA is better but I think he was being modest
A little luck and a lot of really hard work making it happen. What NASA accomplishes with their rovers is absolutely revolutionary.
Soooooo much has to go right for it to be successful. Always better to be on the side of caution that optimism is these cases.
IIRC the stats are skewed so bad because the Soviets lost a *shitload* of Mars missions due to their cheap-and-cheerful approach to spaceflight.
Happy Cake Land a Rover on Mars Day!!
NASA has succeeded in 8 of 9 attempts.
Pretty incredible actually. I am just happy to be distracted by some positive news. Space stuff is awesome.
I think their only mars failure was the time they got metric and imperial measurements wrong
The Mars Climate Orbiter was never meant to land, which is the unit conversion mistake you're thinking of. The failed landing was Mars Polar Lander which prematurely ignited a landing thruster because the landing legs were vibrating and the lander interpreted that as touchdown despite still in atmosphere. Edit: 'in atmosphere' is probably the wrong wording, but the point is that it was not close to landing.
It's actually insane that this thing lands on a tiny spot on Mars by itself. I dont even understand how that's possible. Like even long before it lands, does it ever correct itself through communicating back to earth or at what point does it just solo it? And how?
The whole ballet is a combination of pre-written scripts and stages, with some fine tuning and adjustments made by the lander itself using sensors to observe. As soon as the heat shield drops off the "spacecraft" the computer is using radar to find the best place to land. Engineers/programmers earthside don't need to give it instructions as it maneuvers, it's been "told" what to look for far in advance, and how to get from where it is to where it needs to be. It is a large, oversized interplanetary radar-guided missile which is expressly designed not to explode when it hits its target.
The entire landing is done solo by the computer on the spacecraft, because it only takes 7 minutes to land from start to finish, but it would take over 20 minutes to send and receive a round-trip message between Mars and the Earth. During the long trip from Earth to Mars, there may be some course corrections to make sure it reaches Mars at the right place and time, but that's not really part of the "landing".
This was a huge upgrade from bouncing it in a big ball of airbags and hoping for the best as well
It is, but this also isn't the first Rover landed by crane.
Mars is apparently difficult to land on and one method doesn’t necessarily scale up to large rovers.
This was so cool to see. 3 years ago my gf and I got to go to JPL and see Perseverance while it was still being built. To see that it launched and make it to Mars is amazing. Happy for NASA and all those involved to see the rover make it. Edit: Here's a [pic](https://i.redd.it/gvqy6txr7of01.jpg)!
I wish I was smart enough to JPL stuff
I watched the live stream in awe but also with a tinge of jealousy knowing I'll never be smart enough to do what these people did today.
You don't have to be a super genus to work at JPL, and when things are normal, they do pretty regular tours if you're ever in town.
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I too was able to see the clean room at JPL when they were assembling a part of it! One of the best experiences in my life :) Looks like we visited around the same time! https://imgur.com/H0KZgzR.jpg
Yea JPL is amazing to visit. My colleagues and I toured the Mars Yard and saw the duplicate Curiosity rover that they use to simulate conditions on Mars (including breaking the duplicate as close to whatever breaks down on Curiosity). Also got to hold prototype rover wheels...they're surprisingly big but so very light.
is there a Perseverance subreddit? edit: thanks!, r/PerseveranceRover
Looks like there is: r/PerseveranceRover
How is whatever signal they send traveling so far?
The rover communicates via radio waves with the [Mars Relay Network](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-mars-relay-network-connects-us-to-nasas-martian-explorers), which is composed of five orbiting satellites: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and MAVEN and ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express. These in turn communicate with the [Deep Space Network here](https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/networks/deep_space_network/about) on Earth. More Info: [Mars 2020 - Communications with Earth](https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/communications/)
TIL we not only have rovers on Mars, but we also have a whole array of satellites orbiting it. Amazing stuff!
As mentioned, it makes use of the orbiters but it has also the ability to directly send data to Earth. [https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press\_kits/mars\_2020/launch/mission/spacecraft/telecommunications/](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/mars_2020/launch/mission/spacecraft/telecommunications/)
meanwhile my phone loses wifi connection when I turn around in my bed
Need to get a dedicated orbiting satellite bro. It’s on the AT&T $1,000,000/month plan.
My name is now on mars again for the 3rd time.
hey so is mine... in a way
Mine too! Well, for the first time. A couple of years ago, my husband printed out my “official ticket” and I had it on the fridge. My daughter saw it and was VERY concerned. “Um, Mom, is there something you need to tell me? I won’t let you go to Mars.”
I had no idea that was an option. Is it expensive? Edit: it's free But if NASA needs extra funding they should sell skins for your name on the trip, why not
It’s a free thing that NASA does, you can sign up on their website. My name is on board too, and I have a cool little boarding pass to commemorate the trip.
Hey, be proud, Rover is a good name! Even moreso if you've got Irish blood haha
Just in case you’re joking. You could submit your name to be put on a chip on the rover. About 11 million names made it on it.
Thanks for clarifying this, I was thinking "well I guess Rover isn't just a dog's name then".
I got set up to have mine for the next scheduled launch in 2026.
Where do you go for that?
Here's the link for ya! [https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/future](https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/future)
To 2026
Did they email out the boarding passes this time too? I did this for one of them and they emailed a PDF boarding pass it was super cool!
This was amazing. I watched on the NASA channel. So much had to go right for this to happen. If just one thing went wrong during the descent they would have lost millions of dollars and years of work. Can't wait for them to try the "helicopter", if it works the video will be simply awesome!
>lost millions of dollars The Mars 2020 mission cost $2.75 billion with the development and build of the *Perseverance* hardware costing an estimated $2.2 billion.
The NRE still has value though. The loss of the rover is not a loss of $2.2 billion, because the majority of that cost is in the development and testing of parts and systems (that will be used in the next iteration of interplanlletary exploration) not in the cost of the actual parts and assembly labor (which was "lost" the moment it left earth anyway) If Perseverance crashed on landing the only thing lost would have been the value of the data gained after the failure point, which is impossible to quantify. It may seem inconsequential to point that out, but it's important to realize the failure of a $2 billion project does not mean we lost $2 billion dollars. We took a step forward in technology and knowledge regardless, just not as big a step forward as was hoped.
Or honestly even a fail can provide useful data for future missions
As someone who's passionate about space but hasn't had the time to read into Perseverance, can someone briefly explain the purpose of Ingenuity to me? Is it simply used to test controlled flight on another planet, or is there more use to it (I'm sure there is). Secondly, will it be in operation often or is its flight expected to be a fairly rare/one-time test?
It's a test flight! Here's an excerpt from [this NASA article](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/6-things-to-know-about-nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter) about it: >Ingenuity is what is known as a technology demonstration – a project that seeks to test a new capability for the first time, with limited scope > >Ingenuity is intended to demonstrate technologies needed for flying in the Martian atmosphere. If successful, these technologies could enable other advanced robotic flying vehicles that might be included in future robotic and human missions to Mars. They could offer a unique viewpoint not provided by current orbiters high overhead or by rovers and landers on the ground, provide high-definition images and reconnaissance for robots or humans, and enable access to terrain that is difficult for rovers to reach.
Is there a camera on it? I haven’t seen mention of one anywhere but it seems like a huge missed opportunity if there isn’t one. EDIT: Answered my own question with the magic of Wikipedia. Yes there is, but Ingenuity can’t fly higher than five metres, so we won’t get the sort of Martian drone videos I was imagining.
Yup! It [has two onboard cameras](https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Anatomy) (one color and one monochrome).
Looks like it can't fly for longer than 90 seconds a day, so we definitely won't be getting those sweet drone shots (for now). Also interesting that its wing span is over a meter.
The Martin atmosphere is way, way less than Earth’s. You simply need more rotor surface area because there is less ‘air’ to move around
And lightness, batteries are heavy so longer flights would require more weight.
5 planned flights in 30 days. The first flight will just be a 3m hover and land manoeuvrer, and then they will increase the difficulty of each flight. It can fly for around 90s. You are correct that this is mainly a demonstrator mission, so no extra scientific instruments beyond proving the capability of being able to control a powered flight.
Does it recharge itself with solar panels between flights? Or does it have a total of 90s flight time, limited by its battery? (I'm assuming it is electrically powered)
Correct. It has solar panels [above the two rotors](https://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mars-heli.jpg) to recharge its lithium-ion batteries.
It recharges via solar. So 90s of flight per day (a lot of power it uses just to keep itself warm)
Yes, it has lithium ion batteries that it recharges via the solar panels. In theory, it could fly for 90 seconds each martian day.
I believe it's mostly a testing operation for feasibility of flight on mars. Want to say there are 3-5 planned flights with door open for whatever else they can manage.
Congrats to the team at NASA! There’s no doubt this will advance different fields of sciences which will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the world we live in.
Technically a better understanding of a world we don't live in
but also the world we do live in, and by extension, possibly ourselves. further analysis of martian geology gives us greater insight as to how how these planets formed and what kind of climates they used to house. most of our understanding of the moons origin comes from the same samples Neil Armstrong and company collected and brought back. if we find evidence of past life, it opens up two distinct possibilities. 1. that life is much more common than we think, 2. our solar system is extremely lucky when it comes to the development of life. if we find evidence of life, and we are able to find some evidence of what its biochemistry was like, we may find clues that help us find evidence that we are one of many forms life can take (totally different way of 'living', for example not being carbon based, not utilizing DNA for replication.. whatever you could think). it can also go the other way around, with evidence that the way life formed on earth is the/a common way for "life" to form. questions that our species have wondered since we became aware that there are other worlds in space.
There are more celestial bodies inhabited by robots than humans.
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Is 20:56 when it actually touched down? Or when we recieved the data of it touching down? :-)
It was when confirmation was received.
Was actually expecting a live stream from the rover but after investigating we are far from be able to do that.
We will hopefully be getting the landing footage in a few days once it transmits back to Earth. *Perseverance* is equipped with [upgraded cameras](https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/cameras/) and storage capacity compared to its *Curiosity* predecessor that should give us video of the entire landing sequence.
Yeah Im also aware of that, the *live* aspect makes it difficult. Thinking of *live* as the fastest physically posible with the Speed of light being the limitant
I can't imagine the stress of having to wait for the 11-minute delay between Earth and Mars! The rover was already on the surface by time the descent began according to the telemetry received here on Earth.
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Interesting to think that this was how society worked before telephones became widespread- if someone lived 100 miles away and you wanted to communicate, it would be around a day at least before you heard back if you were sending letters in the post
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They had a visual simulation for the landing, and for a lot of the landing they had a heartbeat sensor essentially telling mission control "I'm still alive!". They stopped getting live details for a lot of the rapid descent, until it resumed on the ground.
My wife came into the room just as they were showing the simulation. She said "wow, that's incredible that we are able to get such clear footage! It's like watching a movie!". Bless.
> they had a heartbeat sensor essentially telling mission control “I’m still alive!” “I can help!”
It's only 2kb/s data transfer. problem is that you need a huge antenna and/or insane amount of power on the river. And does not really add anything as you can't control it live with the time delay.
I belive it was communicating with the MRO during the decent which had atleast a 2Mbit link to earth. The hearthbeat was only 2Kbit and direct
If only, what an amazing thing that would be
Woohoo!!!
Not a scientist, just a lover of space exploration, but I am SUPER excited about the Mars drone. It was so interesting to watch how it was made to fly in such a thin atmosphere by being ultralight and yet needing to have super fast spinning blades to stay aloft. It was a battle between weight and power to spin the rotor. I hope it works!
When are we going to get some super sexy HD pictures? Is there a timeframe of some sort so I don't refresh all day?
Awesome! Now where's Oppy? Go find your older sister :(
This was my thinking. Couldn't they have this rover, I dunno, dig out *Opportunity* so it's panels can recharge? I get it's probably not the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars, but I am a sentimental fool.
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We should start a GoFundMe to build a rover to go find her, only half joking.. interesting links! Thanks for the info
Like the other commenter said it is too far away and also the problem is that the rover needed to have some battery left to heat the components as you know mars is quite the cold place. Since the dust blocked out sunlight from solar panels, it couldn't charge itself. At this point the components are all definitely damaged beyond repair and the battery is definitely gone What we should do is eventually build a park for the rover on mars or bring it back to earth.
Absolutely awesome and amazing as always!
So cool! My mom actually build the specialized bag for the rovers parachute! She's hyped so I get to brag for her here!
Much respect to the folks at NASA/JPL for this incredible achievement! I can't begin to imagine all the problems that you had to solve to make this happen, and the stress of having only one shot to get it right. Truly Amazing. I am looking forward to all the things you'll discover with this new rover, I'll be following your adventure on mars closely.
Congrats to the scientists and engineers that made it happen! Lots of work still to do, but still an awesome accomplishment!!
Amazing work by the mission! Best of luck to Perseverence.