Perseverance rover successfully landed on the Red Planet

NASA's Perseverance rover made a soft landing on the surface of the Red Planet at 15:55 EST. The landing was carried out in the Jezero crater, which is located in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Descent to the surface from orbit took seven minutes, and 4 minutes after landing on Earth, the first frames were received.

Difficult flight and successful landing

Despite the fact that NASA has already landed Mars rovers more than once, each subsequent mission requires colossal effort and may end in failure at any time.

The Perseverance landing was special in that it used a new navigation system designed to significantly reduce the ship's landing area.

The descent of the spacecraft into the atmosphere of Mars began at 15:48 ET (23:48 Moscow time). A minute later, the descent vehicle slowed down from hypersonic to supersonic, and it was then (at 23:52 Moscow time) that the supersonic parachute opened. After 20 seconds, the heat shield was shot off.

It was at this moment that the updated navigation system began to work, which transmitted data to the on-board computer to develop the ideal landing trajectory.

After a couple of minutes of the flight, the rear of the ship separated and the Perseverance and Sky Crane stage set off on an independent flight.

The engines installed on the Sky Crane provided the rover hovering above the surface, and it was carefully lowered to the ground. After that, the Sky Crane flew off to a safe distance and crashed as soon as the fuel supply ran out.

All this time, engineers on Earth could only observe the process through telemetry sent from the rover and orbital stations.

New mission of the rover

As soon as the rover touched the surface of the red planet, one of the most ambitious programs officially began. This $ 2.4 billion mission focuses on the search for life and will also work with the next series of spacecraft to return to Earth the first samples of Martian soil for research.

The cornerstone of the entire Mars 2020 mission is the nuclear-powered Perseverance rover, which is quite similar to the earlier Curiosity rover, but unlike its its predecessor is much technically advanced and even has a mini helicopter at its base, which is the first aircraft to fly into the sky on another planet.

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