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I've had 2 different happy hours today to celebrate a successful Mars launch and some other things so I'm now in the mood to answer your questions about Mars & other planets & missions, here we go
What else? The cameras! Perseverance has completely new and upgraded suite of cameras on the rover -- full-color navigation cameras -- plus cams all over the descent stage and the helicopter. An embarrassment of visual riches awaits us. https://twitter.com/RoskamBart/status/1288908085805883392
I see the Ingenuity helicopter as kind of like the Sojourner rover on Pathfinder. There'll be a couple of scientific papers but it'll be more important as a precedent-setter for future powered flight on Mars (& Titan). Also, it's adorable. I hope it works! https://twitter.com/VenkatKShriyan/status/1288888375995293696
Perseverance landing will be almost identical to Curiosity's. 2 differences: Perseverance has cameras everywhere so we should get AMAZING videos if everything works, and it can avoid known/mapped hazards (hills, big rocks, & holes) in landing area. https://twitter.com/ComPod/status/1288886423806976001
Wheels are very different. Narrower "tires," thicker metal, tread shape completely different. They've been tested and tested. There'll be no embarrassing holes in these wheels. https://twitter.com/QuarkSpin/status/1288883711350575106
The difference isn't between rovers and landers, it has to do with spacecraft mass & power requirements. Phoenix and InSight are just smaller spacecraft than Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. They didn't need as much solar panel. https://twitter.com/sylveona824/status/1288875681133166592
Yes there are data; I don't know what the numbers are. I do know that scientists have used the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range to fire pellets containing microbial spores at rock targets at km per second and some spores of some species survived. https://twitter.com/DanLarge2/status/1288818638171049985
While I don't think the Hope Mars Orbiter carries an Electra radio like the ESA and NASA Mars orbiters do for landed mission relay, I could be wrong, so I'd welcome correction. Anybody in the audience know? https://twitter.com/JustIncidentals/status/1288987112004636673
Here's what we know for now about the plan to pick up the samples that Persverance gathers.
https://twitter.com/LeightonCopley/status/1288987262667993088
https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/mars-sample-return
https://twitter.com/LeightonCopley/status/1288987262667993088
https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/mars-sample-return
I have to give two answers. 1: I desperately want optical mapping & good topography of Venus. It's our sister planet but so different and we don't know why. 2: Uranus because we've never orbited an ice giant and OMG the MOONS https://twitter.com/WmMaxWalker/status/1288987946968731648
Data transmission is still our biggest bottleneck. The Deep Space Network is amazing but its capacity is maxed out. It's not the most glamorous bit of NASA infrastructure but so necessary. Support the DSN! https://twitter.com/themexican/status/1288989611117731845
There is a lot of pressure on long-lived missions to reduce operational costs. The budgets for Curiosity, Mars Odyssey, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have all been very uncomfortably squeezed of late. https://twitter.com/jeffdc2010/status/1288989047944224768
That's easy. Something that can do at Venus what Mars Observer would've done at Mars (which was mostly accomplished by MGS & Odyssey) and an identical pair of orbiters/multiprobes for Uranus and Neptune working through both planets' equinoxes. https://twitter.com/Usili1/status/1288992616214913024
All right, I'm done for the day. Hats off to the launch team for @NASAPersevere. Have a safe flight.
