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Mars Exploration 1: Unmanned Missions (Probes; Rovers; etc.)

From the Gulf, crossing the gulf of space.

The first Arab space mission to Mars is preparing to lift off within weeks. Fuelling is due to begin next week.

It will take seven months to travel the 493 million km (308 million miles) to reach Mars and begin its orbit, sending back ground-breaking new data about its climate and atmosphere. The probe will remain orbiting Mars for an entire Martian year, 687 days, to gather sufficient data. A single orbit around Mars will take the probe 55 hours.

In a briefing on Monday, the programme's science lead Sarah Al-Amiri said the project should be a major incentive for young Arab scientists to embark on a career in space engineering.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52973849
 
From the Gulf, crossing the gulf of space.

The first Arab space mission to Mars is preparing to lift off within weeks. Fuelling is due to begin next week.

It will take seven months to travel the 493 million km (308 million miles) to reach Mars and begin its orbit, sending back ground-breaking new data about its climate and atmosphere. The probe will remain orbiting Mars for an entire Martian year, 687 days, to gather sufficient data. A single orbit around Mars will take the probe 55 hours.

In a briefing on Monday, the programme's science lead Sarah Al-Amiri said the project should be a major incentive for young Arab scientists to embark on a career in space engineering.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52973849


More on this Mission to Mars.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a small Persian Gulf nation, is on the cusp of a big breakthrough: joining the United States, the Soviet Union, Europe, and India in the elite club of nations that have successfully sent spacecraft to Mars. On 15 July, the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM)—also known as the Hope satellite—is set to launch on a Japanese rocket, arriving at the Red Planet in February 2021.

Planners hope the mission will boost UAE industry and science capacity while also delivering sorely needed data on the martian atmosphere. “One of the primary objectives of the mission from the start was to do science that is relevant to the international community,” says Sarah Amiri, Hope’s science lead.

Most of the six spacecraft now at Mars are in polar orbits that only offer views of the surface at fixed times of day. But Hope will be inserted into an inclined orbit that provides a view of any given point at a different time on each orbit. A camera and infrared spectrometer will collect data about dust, moisture, and ozone in the lower atmosphere, while an ultraviolet spectrometer will measure carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and oxygen in the upper atmosphere.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...ted-arab-emirates-poised-join-elite-mars-club
 
China heads to the red Planet.

China has moved a rocket into position to launch a rover to Mars, in one of three forthcoming missions to the red planet, one from the US and another by the United Arab Emirates.

The Long March-5 carrier rocket is China’s heaviest-lift launch vehicle and has been used experimentally three times, but never with a payload. Dubbed Tianwen-1, China’s first mission to Mars aims to land a rover to gather scientific data. The rocket is due to blast off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan in late July or early August, according to state media reports on Friday that quoted the China National Space Administration. The mission is one of the most ambitious yet for China’s space programme, which has advanced rapidly since launching its first crewed mission in 2003.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40017326.html
 
A well-equipped rover. It's next mission will be to seek out intelligent life in Cromer.

NASA’s next rover is a connoisseur of Martian rocks.

The main job of the Perseverance rover, set to launch between July 20 and August 11, is to pick out rocks that might preserve signs of past life and store the samples for a future mission back to Earth.

“We’re giving a gift to the future,” says planetary scientist Adrian Brown, who works at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Most of the rover’s seven sets of scientific instruments work in service of that goal, including zoomable cameras to pick out the best rocks from afar and lasers and spectrometers to identify a rock’s makeup. After the rover lands in February 2021, it’s capable of collecting and storing 20 samples within the first Martian year (about two Earth years). The NASA team plans to collect at least 30 samples over the whole mission, says planetary scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Fortunately, Perseverance is headed to a spot that should be full of collection-worthy rocks. The landing site in Jezero crater, just north of the Martian equator, contains an ancient river delta that looks like it once carried water and silt into a long-lived lake.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nasa-perseverance-rover-mars-instruments-life
 
This article focuses on the helicopter aspect of the Perseverance mission.

07.27.2020 08:00 AM
A Helicopter Ride Over Mars? NASA's About to Give It a Shot
“I see it as kind of a Wright brothers moment on another planet,” says the project's chief engineer at JPL.

LATER THIS WEEK, NASA plans to launch its fourth Mars rover, Perseverance, on a six-month journey to the Red Planet. Perseverance will boot up a mission to collect samples of Martian dirt that might have traces of ancient life, so that they can be returned to Earth by another mission later this decade. It will also carry a payload unlike anything that’s ever been boosted into space: a small autonomous helicopter called Ingenuity. Sometime next spring, probably in April, Ingenuity will spin up its rotor blades and become the first spacecraft to go airborne on Mars.

“I see it as kind of a Wright brothers moment on another planet,” says Bob Balaram, the chief engineer for the Mars helicopter project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It’s a high-risk, high-reward mission that could enable us to go to lots of places we haven’t been able to go before.”

https://www.wired.com/story/a-helicopter-ride-over-mars-nasas-about-to-give-it-a-shot/
 
Dont tell me.

It will find all sorts of interesting rocks only to get them home...

...and find they are not that thrilling after all.

This is my geologising experience
 
Perseverance is on its way to Mars

Nasa Mars rover: Perseverance robot launches to detect life on Red Planet
By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent
  • 2 hours ago
The US space agency's Perseverance robot has left Earth on a mission to try to detect life on Mars.
The one-tonne, six-wheeled rover was launched out of Florida by an Atlas rocket on a path to intercept the Red Planet in February next year.
When it lands, the Nasa robot will also gather rock and soil samples to be sent home later this decade.
Perseverance is the third mission despatched to Mars inside 11 days, after launches by the UAE and China.
Lift-off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station occurred at 07:50 local time (12:50 BST; 11:50 GMT).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53584405
 
A well-equipped rover. It's next mission will be to seek out intelligent life in Cromer.

NASA’s next rover is a connoisseur of Martian rocks.

The main job of the Perseverance rover, set to launch between July 20 and August 11, is to pick out rocks that might preserve signs of past life and store the samples for a future mission back to Earth.

“We’re giving a gift to the future,” says planetary scientist Adrian Brown, who works at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Most of the rover’s seven sets of scientific instruments work in service of that goal, including zoomable cameras to pick out the best rocks from afar and lasers and spectrometers to identify a rock’s makeup. After the rover lands in February 2021, it’s capable of collecting and storing 20 samples within the first Martian year (about two Earth years). The NASA team plans to collect at least 30 samples over the whole mission, says planetary scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Fortunately, Perseverance is headed to a spot that should be full of collection-worthy rocks. The landing site in Jezero crater, just north of the Martian equator, contains an ancient river delta that looks like it once carried water and silt into a long-lived lake.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nasa-perseverance-rover-mars-instruments-life
The whole plan to get the rocks back to Earth is amazing. Perseverance is going to get the rocks, then leave them in a cache on the surface. Then another rover is being launched to pick up the cache left by Perseverance. That second rover will then bring the cache back and load the cache onto a rocket at it's landing site. That rocket will then launch into Mars orbit. Then the small Mars to Mars orbit rocket will launch the canister in space to be captured by yet another rocket. That fourth rocket will come back to Earth, where it will release the canister to land.

So two rovers and four rockets.

https://www.space.com/mars-rover-perseverance-sample-return-missions.html
 
The whole plan to get the rocks back to Earth is amazing. Perseverance is going to get the rocks, then leave them in a cache on the surface. Then another rover is being launched to pick up the cache left by Perseverance. That second rover will then bring the cache back and load the cache onto a rocket at it's landing site. That rocket will then launch into Mars orbit. Then the small Mars to Mars orbit rocket will launch the canister in space to be captured by yet another rocket. That fourth rocket will come back to Earth, where it will release the canister to land.

So two rovers and four rockets.

https://www.space.com/mars-rover-perseverance-sample-return-missions.html
So many links in the chain. Lots that can go wrong.
Circumstances and engineering have to be spot-on.
 
On Thursday Mars rover Perserverance will try to land on Mars.

If this fails, oh well, 3 billion dollars down the drain !
 
I can't freakin' wait for Perseverance to land!

Will be following the NASA streaming today.

I see though that the landing site of Jezero crater is, like the location of many Mars probes, not that far north or south of the equator.

mars.JPG


Can't help wondering if all these spacecraft are landing in the Martian equivalent of the Gobi desert.
Would they have a better chance of detecting life at locations such as the lake of water just below the surface of the southern polar region, or the bottom of Hellas Planitia or Valles Marineris, where the higher air pressure can just about support liquid water?
 
Is that 20:55 GMT when the landing actually happens, or when the signal gets to Earth after about eleven and a half minutes?
 
In any event, my name, which is on board, will be on Mars!
As a gimmick to increase public interest, NASA allows people to submit their names to get "Boarding Passes" online before a mission is ready to launch. The names are then microscopically etched on chips that go on the vehicle. I thought I learned about it on these forums, but I can't find it now.

EDIT: To get your name on a future (unspecified) Mars mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/
 
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...NASA allows people to submit their names to get "Boarding Passes" online before a mission is ready to launch. The names are then microscopically etched on chips that go on the vehicle.

Can loads of people now expect to receive emails along the lines of:

“Greetings, [name],

l am the widow of ∫∭∳∋∉, President of Mars, and l need your help to get 647 bleems of gold off-planet...”

maximus otter
 
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