3 For Mars

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3 For Mars

#1 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sun Feb 07, 2021 11:20 pm

Mars traffic jam: 3 spacecraft arriving in quick succession

https://www.12news.com/article/news/nat ... 53a13aae4d

Mars traffic jam: 3 spacecraft arriving in quick succession
China and United Arab Emirates spacecraft arrive this week. NASA's rover lands next week on an ambitious mission to return Mars rocks to Earth.

Author: MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer
Published: 2:10 PM MST February 7, 2021

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — After hurtling hundreds of millions of miles through space since last summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars. The stakes — and anxiety — are sky high.

The United Arab Emirates’ orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China’s orbiter-rover combo. NASA’s rover, the cosmic caboose, will arrive on the scene a week later, on Feb. 18, to collect rocks for return to Earth — a key step in determining whether life ever existed at Mars.

Both the UAE and China are newcomers at Mars, where more than half of Earth’s emissaries have failed. China’s first Mars mission, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made it past Earth’s orbit.

“We are quite excited as engineers and scientists, at the same time quite stressed and happy, worried, scared,” said Omran Sharaf, project manager for the UAE.

All three spacecraft rocketed away within days of one another last July, during an Earth-to-Mars launch window that occurs only every two years. That’s why their arrivals are also close together.

Called Amal, or Hope in Arabic, the Gulf nation's spacecraft is seeking an especially high orbit — 13,500 by 27,000 miles high (22,000 kilometers by 44,000 kilometers) — all the better to monitor the Martian weather.
China's duo — called Tianwen-1, or “Quest for Heavenly Truth” — will remain paired in orbit until May, when the rover separates to descend to the dusty, ruddy surface. If all goes well, it will be only the second country to land successfully on the red planet.

The U.S. rover Perseverance, by contrast, will dive in straight away for a harrowing sky-crane touchdown similar to the Curiosity rover’s grand Martian entrance in 2012. The odds are in NASA’s favor: It’s nailed eight of its nine attempted Mars landings.

This illustration shows NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft carrying the Perseverance rover as it approaches Mars.
Despite their differences — the 1-ton Perseverance is larger and more elaborate than the Tianwen-1 rover — both will prowl for signs of ancient microscopic life.

Perseverance’s $3 billion mission is the first leg in a U.S.-European effort to bring Mars samples to Earth in the next decade.

“To say we’re pumped about it, well that would be a huge understatement,” said Lori Glaze, NASA’s planetary science director.

Perseverance is aiming for an ancient river delta that seems a logical spot for once harboring life. This landing zone in Jezero Crater is so treacherous that NASA nixed it for Curiosity, but so tantalizing that scientists are keen to get hold of its rocks.

“When the scientists take a look at a site like Jezero Crater, they see the promise, right?” said Al Chen, who’s in charge of the entry, descent and landing team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “When I look at Jezero, I see danger. There’s danger everywhere.”

Steep cliffs, deep pits and fields of rocks could cripple or doom Perseverance, following its seven-minute atmospheric plunge. With an 11 1/2-minute communication lag each way, the rover will be on its own, unable to rely on flight controllers. Amal and Tianwen-1 will also need to operate autonomously while maneuvering into orbit.

Until Perseverance, NASA sought out flat, boring terrain on which to land — “one giant parking lot,” Chen said. That's what China's Tianwen-1 rover will be shooting for in Mars' Utopia Planitia.

NASA is upping its game thanks to new navigation technology designed to guide the rover to a safe spot. The spacecraft also has a slew of cameras and microphones to capture the sights and sounds of descent and landing, a Martian first.

Faster than previous Mars vehicles but still moving at a glacial pace, the six-wheeled Perseverance will drive across Jezero, collecting core samples of the most enticing rocks and gravel. The rover will set the samples aside for retrieval by a fetch rover launching in 2026.

Under an elaborate plan still being worked out by NASA and the European Space Agency, the geologic treasure would arrive on Earth in the early 2030s. Scientists contend it’s the only way to ascertain whether life flourished on a wet, watery Mars 3 billion to 4 billion years ago.

NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, considers it “one of the hardest things ever done by humanity and certainly in space science.”

The U.S. is still the only country to successfully land on Mars, beginning with the 1976 Vikings. Two spacecraft are still active on the surface: Curiosity and InSight.

Smashed Russian and European spacecraft litter the Martian landscape, meanwhile, along with NASA’s failed Mars Polar Lander from 1999.

Getting into orbit around Mars is less complicated, but still no easy matter, with about a dozen spacecraft falling short. Mars fly-bys were the rage in the 1960s and most failed; NASA’s Mariner 4 was the first to succeed in 1965.

Six spacecraft currently are operating around Mars: three from the U.S., two from Europe and one from India. The UAE hopes to make it seven with its $200-plus million mission.

The UAE is especially proud that Amal was designed and built by its own citizens, who partnered with the University of Colorado at Boulder and other U.S. institutions, not simply purchased from abroad. Its arrival at Mars coincides with this year’s 50th anniversary of the country’s founding.

“Starting off the year with this milestone is something very important for the people” of the UAE, said Sharaf.

China, hasn't divulged much in advance. Even the spacecraft's exact arrival time on Wednesday has yet to be announced.

The China Academy of Space Technology's Ye Peijian noted that Tianwen-1 has three objectives: orbiting the planet, landing and releasing the rover. If successful, he said in a statement “it will become the world's first Mars expedition accomplishing all three goals with one probe.”

The coronavirus pandemic has complicated each step of each spacecraft’s 300 million-mile (480 million-kilometer) journey to Mars. It even kept the European and Russian space agencies' joint Mars mission grounded until the next launch window in 2022.

The flight control rooms will contain fewer people on the big day, with staff spread over a wider area and working from home. Desks have dividers and partitions. Masks and social distancing are mandatory.

Perseverance's deputy project manager Matt Wallace, who’s working his fifth Mars rover mission, said the pandemic won’t dampen the mood come landing day.

“I don’t think COVID’s going to be able to stop us from jumping up and down, and fist-bumping,” he said. “You’re going to see a lot of happy people no matter what, once we get this thing on the surface safely.”

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Re: 3 For Mars - Allahu Akbar

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Feb 09, 2021 11:56 am

The Hope spacecraft has launched from the United Arab Emirates and is set to reach Mars, orbiting the Red Planet to study its climate.
The craft is currently travelling at over 120,000km/h (75,000mph), but a tense 30-minute period as it enters the planet's gravitational pull will dictate the success of the mission. The 27 minute-long manoeuvre will see the spaceship disappear behind the planet - unable to be monitored from the Earth.

The probe relies on its autonomous behaviour to overcome the 190 million kilometre gap in distance between the Earth and Mars; it takes 11 minutes for a radio command to reach the craft, far too long to be adequately controlled.

Should it prove successful, Hope will study how energy moves through the Martian atmosphere. It will track the movement of hydrogen and oxygen atoms at the top of the atmosphere, as well as lofted dust which has a significant effect on the planet's temperature.

The Hope probe is scheduled to enter Mars' orbit today, with the UAE Space Agency providing live coverage starting around 3:30pm (7:30 am PT). Viewers can also track the probe's progress online as it approaches the Red Planet.

"We're entering a very critical phase," said project director, Omran Sharaf. "It's a phase that basically defines whether we reach Mars, or not; and whether we'll be able to conduct our science, or not.

"If we go too slow, we crash on Mars; if we go too fast, we skip Mars," he told BBC News.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 99570.html
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Re: 3 For Mars

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Feb 09, 2021 12:43 pm

Live stream... 03:00 PM UCT

https://www.emiratesmarsmission.ae/live/
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Re: 3 For Mars

#4 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Feb 09, 2021 3:47 pm

Though you remain
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To go
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Re: 3 For Mars

#5 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:14 pm

^:)^ Inserted successfully into Mars orbit... :-bd
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Re: 3 For Mars

#6 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:48 am

The Hope probe, sent into orbit around Mars last week by the United Arab Emirates, has sent back its first photo of the Red Planet.

The photo was taken from approximately 25,000 kilometres above the planet, using the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) - a 12MP tool that measures the Mars via visible and ultraviolet light. It is also used to measure water ice and ozone in the atmosphere.

The successful mission from the UAE makes it only the fifth country to have reached Mars.
Mars.JPG
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 02377.html
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Perseverance on Mars today?

#7 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:36 am

Since it launched on July 30 last year, a rocket bearing NASA’s Perseverance Rover has been charting a C-shaped course through inky-black space, hurtling toward Mars. If all goes according to plan, on February 18, the wheeled robot the size of a small car will complete its six-month-long, 292.5-million-mile journey and touch down safely on the Red Planet’s surface.

Should it succeed, Perseverance will be the fifth NASA rover ever to land on Mars, after Sojourner (1997), twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity (2004) and Curiosity (2012). The new rover, affectionately dubbed “Percy,” will scour the dusty, crater-strewn planet for evidence of ancient life and prepare the way for future human visitors.
Perseverance Landing

1a-edl_graphic_horizontal-imperial-01_web.jpg

But the stage is set, and the $2.7 billion Perseverance rover is scheduled to reach the surface at 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST) on Thursday, February 18. Coverage at NASA’s live stream, which you can watch below, begins at 2:15 p.m. EST (11:15 a.m. PST). 7:15 UTC


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Re: 3 For Mars

#8 Post by Boac » Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:02 am

For our world-wide readers, 20:55(Z)

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Re: 3 For Mars

#9 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:47 pm

Boac wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:02 am
For our world-wide readers, 20:55(Z)
Corrected

UTC 08:55 PM

Kicks himself. Takes birch and beats himself. :ymblushing:
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Re: 3 For Mars

#10 Post by G-CPTN » Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:56 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:47 pm
Boac wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:02 am
For our world-wide readers, 20:55(Z)
UTC 08:55 PM
And the difference is?

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Re: 3 For Mars

#11 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:07 pm

G-CPTN wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:56 pm
TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:47 pm
Boac wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:02 am
For our world-wide readers, 20:55(Z)
UTC 08:55 PM
And the difference is?

None, but if you look at my original post I had typed 7:15 UTC.

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
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Re: 3 For Mars

#12 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:29 pm

Two's company... Three's a crowd, and five may just might turn some into psychiatric cases!
Before I went to space, I made a cassette with 90 minutes of music from every continent on Earth,” recalls Reinhold Ewald, a German physicist who spent 20 days on the International Space Station in 1997. In the hour and a half it took him to complete his orbit, he would watch the planet pass below him and listen to its people’s music. This timeout was a perfect way to decompress from his high-pressure job, far from his family and normal hobbies.

Over the past year, all of us have experienced some form of isolation due to coronavirus restrictions and the mental health issues it can create. But while those of us locked down on Earth can at least get out the house for a change of scenery, space travellers have no escape from their cramped quarters.

Most astronauts today spend a few months at a time in space, with the longest continual sojourn being a 14-month mission undertaken by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov in 1994-5. However, if humans travel to Mars, as space agencies plan in the coming decade, the time away from Earth will be much longer. A one way, 170 million-kilometre journey takes roughly six months. If astronauts land on the red planet and spend time there, a mission will likely last two and a half years.

“Imagine being stuck in a motorhome with five people for six months,” says Dr Jack Stuster, an anthropologist who has advised Nasa, “except there are no windows, and you can’t go outside.” On this analogous Mars voyage, “you know everything about the other travellers, having trained with them for years. You know all their jokes, their family history, their annoying mannerisms. When you get to your destination, you will spend most of the next 18 months in a slightly larger habitat together, before facing another six-month journey home.”

The psychological strains of such intense and long-lasting isolation are easy to imagine. How much of a problem are they, and how do space agencies prepare their staff for the inevitable stresses that will occur on such missions?

Ever since people have thought about travelling to other celestial bodies, the psychological issues have been discussed too. In a 1954 article on the challenges of a voyage to Mars, engineer Wernher von Braun asked: “Can a man retain his sanity while cooped up with many other men in a crowded area, perhaps twice the length of your living room, for more than 30 months? Little mannerisms – the way a man cracks his knuckles, blows his nose, the way he grins, talks, or gestures – create tension and hatred which could lead to murder.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/independe ... ml?r=79839
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Re: 3 For Mars

#13 Post by G-CPTN » Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:40 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:29 pm

Ever since people have thought about travelling to other celestial bodies, the psychological issues have been discussed too. In a 1954 article on the challenges of a voyage to Mars, engineer Wernher von Braun asked: “Can a man retain his sanity while cooped up with many other men in a crowded area, perhaps twice the length of your living room, for more than 30 months? Little mannerisms – the way a man cracks his knuckles, blows his nose, the way he grins, talks, or gestures – create tension and hatred which could lead to murder.”
Whereas 'mixed sex' crews could always find some activity to relieve themselves.

Just saying . . .

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Re: 3 For Mars

#14 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:48 pm

G-CPTN wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:40 pm
TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:29 pm

Ever since people have thought about travelling to other celestial bodies, the psychological issues have been discussed too. In a 1954 article on the challenges of a voyage to Mars, engineer Wernher von Braun asked: “Can a man retain his sanity while cooped up with many other men in a crowded area, perhaps twice the length of your living room, for more than 30 months? Little mannerisms – the way a man cracks his knuckles, blows his nose, the way he grins, talks, or gestures – create tension and hatred which could lead to murder.”
Whereas 'mixed sex' crews could always find some activity to relieve themselves.

Just saying . . .
Sex in a tin can! Methinks the idea would soon pall. Being stuck with other people might also "suck", but might work for swingers for a short while. Too much like Flesh Gordon methinks! =)) ;)))
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Re: 3 For Mars

#15 Post by ian16th » Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:23 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:48 pm
G-CPTN wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:40 pm
TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:29 pm

Ever since people have thought about travelling to other celestial bodies, the psychological issues have been discussed too. In a 1954 article on the challenges of a voyage to Mars, engineer Wernher von Braun asked: “Can a man retain his sanity while cooped up with many other men in a crowded area, perhaps twice the length of your living room, for more than 30 months? Little mannerisms – the way a man cracks his knuckles, blows his nose, the way he grins, talks, or gestures – create tension and hatred which could lead to murder.”
Whereas 'mixed sex' crews could always find some activity to relieve themselves.

Just saying . . .
Sex in a tin can! Methinks the idea would soon pall. Being stuck with other people might also "suck", but might work for swingers for a short while. Too much like Flesh Gordon methinks! =)) ;)))
To put it in some sort of perspective, what is the longest stay on the Space Station?
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Re: 3 For Mars

#16 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:29 pm

ian16th wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:23 pm

To put it in some sort of perspective, what is the longest stay on the Space Station?
Male cosmonaut Valery Polyakov currently holds the overall record for longest space mission, having completed a stay of 437 days aboard the ISS. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly set the overall American record in 2016 when he returned from a 340-day trip.
Average stay is about 6 months...
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Re: 3 For Mars

#17 Post by G-CPTN » Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:30 pm

At least the Space Station has a view of Earth to entertain those 'imprisoned', whereas a journey to Mars will be like crossing the Atlantic or Pacific in a Tramp steamer.

What is the time taken for transmissions from Mars to reach Earth?

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Re: 3 For Mars

#18 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:32 pm

About 24 minutes to go to touch down!
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Re: 3 For Mars

#19 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:33 pm

G-CPTN wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:30 pm
At least the Space Station has a view of Earth to entertain those 'imprisoned', whereas a journey to Mars will be like crossing the Atlantic or Pacific in a Tramp steamer.
True. Losing sight of near earth will be the loneliest humans have ever been!
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Re: 3 For Mars

#20 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:36 pm

Landing sequence underway...
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