"Seven minutes of terror": the Perseverance robot will land on Mars
In this illustration provided by NASA, the Perseverance rover is making its descent towards the surface of Mars.
AP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
After the United Arab Emirates and China, it is the turn of the United States to join the planet Mars.
Three space missions in seven days and the final bouquet this Thursday, February 18: NASA will indeed land the robot Perseverance on the ground of the red planet.
This rover - or astromobile in French - will aim to learn more about a possible presence of life in the past of Mars.
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With
Simon Rozé,
from the Science department of RFI
"
Humanity is sending the new generation of robotic explorers to the red planet
," enthuses the NASA commentator.
On July 30, the perseverance robot
left for Mars
.
Seven months and 470 million kilometers later, the journey is drawing to a close.
The most complicated remains: the landing.
At 19:54 UT, the craft will begin its descent, slowed first by the friction of the Martian atmosphere, then by parachutes.
Finally, they are retro-rockets that will ignite a few meters from the ground to keep a platform in the air that will put the machine on the ground, thanks to a winch.
A maneuver in automatic mode, without possible control from Earth.
Seven minutes in total, "
Seven minutes of terror,
" as they say in Houston.
Because if it fails, the $ 2.5 billion mission will make a new Martian crater.
Martian soil samples
If successful, however, Perseverance will have an ambitious program: to continue the work of its big brother Curiosity, which has proven that Mars has had liquid water in its past.
Perseverance will also have to prepare samples of Martian soil, which another mission will come to collect in a few years to bring them back to Earth.
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See also: United Arab Emirates, China, United States: Mars objective
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March
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