It's about 24 hours for Perseverance rover's landing on the Martian surface. Hundreds of scientists and engineers who have devoted eight years of their life to this mission will be waiting for the mission control to announce, 

"Touchdown confirmed. We are safe on Mars."

(1/n)

But before that, it has to survive through the '7 Minutes Of Terror'. The package comes into the Martian atmosphere at about 13000 mph and the friction will cause the heat shield to start glowing. Thrusters will guide the course of landing getting rid of 99% of the energy.

(2/n)

The biggest supersonic parachute ever sent to another planet is now deployed. The heat shield pops off and the radar can start 'seeing' the ground. The exact landing spot isn't fixed and will be decided based on data collected by the rover in real-time, autonomously.

(3/n)

Once it has found a spot to land, the parachute will separate from the final set of rockets carrying the rover that will take it to 20 meters above ground from where the sky-crane will gently lower the rover onto the surface using a rope.

The mission starts now.

(4/n)

The primary mission of this rover is to address whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Perseverance will land on the Jezero crater. The crater is believed to have been a lake once, and that is the perfect place to start hunting the possibility of Martian life.

(5/n)

We've fantasized about the possibility of life on Mars for ages, and this mission is a moment of truth to answer that question, partially at least.

(6/n)

Perseverance is going to drill samples, put them in small tubes, and set them on the surface for future Mars missions to get them back to Earth, optimistically by 2031. This is quite an ambitious plan but hey, it's named 'perseverance' after all.

(7/n)

The rover also carries an audacious experiment in space-faring technology- Ingenuity, a helicopter. Because of the thin atmosphere on Mars, it is similar to flying the helicopter on Earth at 100,000 ft. And the record altitude reached by helicopters on Earth is 40,000 ft.

(8/n)

However, Ingenuity isn't there to make scientific discoveries. It's mostly a demonstration, proof that we can fly in the Martian atmosphere. It is a prototype to help engineers design and build helicopters for future missions.

(9/n)

This kind of technology is game-changing for future Mars missions. An aerial vehicle can scout paths for land-bound rovers or even pick up samples from places the rover can't access.

(10/10)

#CountdownToMars #WePersevere #Perseverance
@NASAPersevere @NASA