Mars Perseverance rover

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by foghorn, Feb 17, 2021.

  1. foghorn Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,452
    There have been Mars rovers before, but I'm excited about this one...
    Tomorrow folks.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56091592
     
    Dennis Tate and Michael 345 like this.
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. sculptor Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,466
    Dennis Tate likes this.
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. exchemist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,451
    I'll be interested in the drone and the oxygen manufacture. However I can already see how this interminable business of looking for life will turn out. Either there will be nothing of significance found, in which case there will follow a hasty qualifier that of course this does not prove that there never was any life on Mars, or they may find something that looks a bit like a stromatolite, in which case they will say it could be a sign of life - but not necessarily. So in the end we won't be any further forward.
     
    Dennis Tate likes this.
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    6,549
    Evidence of life is one thing...

    But a fanciful, ambitious crackpot idea... Change the orbit, increase the mass (using meteors with both.) Create oxygen and liquid water.

    I have not drawn up plans for this yet, though.
     
    Dennis Tate likes this.
  8. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,077
    No garden of Eden to get Creationist excited?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  9. foghorn Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,452
    Yes, this sounds great, But I wonder where it will take shelter (and keep upright) when dust storms approach. Must look into this.

    Something like the Viking events back in the seventies . I hope this mission proves you wrong.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  10. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

    Messages:
    39,397
    Fingers crossed that the landing is successful. Historically, about half of all Mars missions have failed, for one reason or another. Landing on Mars, in particular, is hard.

    Here's the official site:

    https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

    At the time of writing this, the spacecraft is travelling at 76,000 km/hr. Everything has to go just right in order to land it safely on Mars with a speed of zero.
     
  11. geordief Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,118
  12. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,077
    Please don't

    Testicular torsion occurs when a testicle rotates, twisting the spermatic cord that brings blood to the scrotum. The reduced blood flow causes sudden and often severe pain and swelling.

    https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases...sion occurs when a,any age, even before birth.

    Ouch wince indeed

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    exchemist likes this.
  13. geordief Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,118
    I wonder if that has any bearing on the postoperative pain/swelling in the scrotum I have heard tell of subsequent to some inguinal hernia operations.

    Maybe just a generalised inflammation since the two areas are adjacent.
     
  14. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,077
    Oh you are pushing my brain back to the days I was training for my Registered Nurse certificate

    inguinal hernia is where portion of the gut falls through the weak region which the testicles have previously migrated though on their way to take up residence in the scrotum

    The ID'er, in his wisdom, decided not to close the door on the passage way, but in essence, leave it slightly ajar

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  15. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,077
    Has Perseverance landed yet please

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Currently 11:30 AM Thursday 18th in Bali Denpasar and having problem with landing time only being given relative to America ? EST

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Edit - seems like landing will be 2am Bali time so will have shut eye early evening

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2021
  16. arfa brane call me arf Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,832
    Just on CNN.

    First images from the Perseverance rover.
     
  17. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

    Messages:
    39,397
    I just watched the live feed of the landing. All went to plan, it seems, although I imagine there are still lots of checks to do on the lander to make sure everything is working as intended, that all booms and arms are up, helicopter is intact, etc.

    It's an impressive engineering feat to get a car-sized rover all the way to Mars and land it in a particular, relatively small target area, entirely autonomously (since the signal delay from Earth to Mars is about 20 minutes, one way). Given the complicated landing system, involving entry into the atmosphere, guidance to the landing site, parachute deployment and release, free fall, rocket slowing, then "sky crane" of the lander onto the surface, lots of things could have gone wrong.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    (One of the first images taken by Perseverance rover, from one of its front hazard avoidance cameras. Possibly there's still a lens cap on the camera in this image. It is low-res, and the image is also somewhat obscured by dust blown up by the rockets. But it looks like Mars.)
     
  18. exchemist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,451
    Nah it's a fake. Those are lumps of expanded polystyrene. Ask Fat Freddie.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  19. billvon Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    21,634
    Of course it's a fake! Mars is RED. What color is that picture? It was obviously taken on the Moon. Which we never went to either.
     
    exchemist likes this.
  20. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,077

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Incredible. This is a photo of Perseverance short time before landing

    *
    The descent stage holding NASA’s Perseverance rover can be seen falling through the Martian atmosphere, its parachute trailing behind, in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021, by the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The ancient river delta, which is the target of the Perseverance mission, can be seen entering Jezero Crater from the left.

    https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25610/hirise-captured-perseverance-during-descent-to-mars/
    *
    And people go gaga over selfies and cute cats???

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    foghorn likes this.
  21. foghorn Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,452
    In trying to answer the question of where or how the helicopter will avoid being blown over or where it can shelter in a dust storm, I came across this:

    https://www.nap.edu/read/10360/chapter/5
    My bold
    Not a direct answer, but it makes it less worrying.


    eolian = (geology) deposited, carried or eroded by wind
     
    Michael 345 likes this.
  22. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

    Messages:
    39,397
    The batteries on the helicopter mean it can fly continuously for about 1.5 minutes. Then it has to land and charge up the batteries for a day.

    To cope with the thin Martian atmosphere, its blades have to spin about 8-10 times faster than is typical for helicopters on Earth. Pressure-wise, operating the helicopter near the surface of Mars is approximately equivalent to trying to fly a helicopter on Earth at a height of 100,000 feet (something that Earth helicopters never do).
     
  23. geordief Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,118
    More of a hopper than a flight machine?
     

Share This Page