NASA Invites Public to Share Thrill of Mars Perseverance Rover Landing
February 15, 2021 | NASAEstimated reading time: 3 minutes
Editor's Note: I-Connect007 ran an interview with Leland Holeman and Amelia Cook, the owners of Goodwinds Composites, fabricators of some of the key components for the onboard helicopter, named Ingenuity. Revisit the interview as you follow the landing on February 18.
NASA is inviting the public to take part in virtual activities and events as the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover nears entry, descent, and landing on the Red Planet, with touchdown scheduled for approximately 3:55 p.m. EST Thursday, February 18.
Live coverage and landing commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will begin at 2:15 p.m. on the NASA TV Public Channel and the agency’s website, as well as the NASA App, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion, and THETA.TV.
Among the many firsts with this mission is the agency’s first-ever Spanish-language show for a planetary landing. On Thursday, Feb. 18, at 2:30 p.m., NASA will air “Juntos perseveramos,” a show that will give viewers an overview of the mission to Mars and highlight the role Hispanic NASA professionals have had in its success.
During landing, the rover will plunge through the thin Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 mph (about 20,000 kph). A parachute and powered descent will slow the rover down to about 2 mph (3 kph). During what is known as the sky crane maneuver, the descent stage will lower the rover on three cables to land softly on six wheels at Jezero Crater.
Perseverance also is carrying a technology experiment – the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
“If there’s one thing we know, it’s that landing on Mars is never easy,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Communications Marc Etkind. “But as NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance has an extraordinary engineering pedigree and mission team. We are excited to invite the entire world to share this exciting event with us!”
NASA is offering many ways for the public to participate and stay up to date on landing information, mission highlights, and interaction opportunities.
Watch and Participate Virtually
Connect with like-minded space enthusiasts, receive a NASA Social badge, ask questions, and take part in other virtual activities by signing up for the Perseverance Rover Virtual NASA Social event.
NASA also will provide a virtual guest experience for members of the public during landing, with notifications about mission updates, curated mission resources, and a virtual passport stamp available after landing.
Stay connected and let people know you're following the mission on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Join the conversation, ask questions, and get answers online by using #CountdownToMars.
At 7 p.m. EST Tuesday, Feb. 16, a NASA Social live show previewing landing day will stream live via the JPL YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
You also can follow every step of entry, descent, and landing with this visualization, and get a preview of all the excitement with a new video.
Opportunities for Students, Teachers, Educators
Design, build, and land your own spacecraft – just like NASA scientists and engineers do. Join NASA’s Mission to Mars Student Challenge, where classrooms, informal education groups, families and individuals will be able to participate in landing week question-and-answer sessions with mission experts and submit student questions and work that could be featured during NASA broadcasts leading up to and on landing day.
A Mars 2020 STEM toolkit also is available, with stories on the students who named Perseverance and Ingenuity, opportunities to code your own Mars exploration games, and more.
Join scientists from NASA and JPL at a briefing of the National Academies Space Studies Board and Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 11:30 am EST to hear more about Perseverance’s journey to Mars’ Jezero Crater, NASA’s Mars Sample Return, and the challenges the team has overcome. Participants include:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science
- Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division
- Bobby Braun, Mars Sample Return program manager at JPL
- Matt Wallace, deputy project manager, Mars 2020 at JPL
- Katie Stack Morgan, Mars 2020 deputy project scientist at JPL
RELATED VIDEO:
Suggested Items
Revolutionizing Sustainable Energy: Georgia Solar Companies Partner with Georgia Power to Unveil New Parking Deck Solar Array
04/19/2024 | BUSINESS WIREThree Georgia-based solar companies have joined together to design, build and construct an innovative solar array atop the parking deck at Georgia Power’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Pluritec's Expansion and Growth in the North American Market
04/19/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPONicola Doria, president of Pluritec, discusses the company's strategic focus on the North American market, their investment in a new sales organization, service expansion, and a new process integration line. The conversation also covers market response and future installations, as well as Pluritec's new partnership with IEC.
Fraunhofer IIS Opens Laboratory in Space
04/19/2024 | Fraunhofer IISRadiation, vacuum, and substantial temperature fluctuations: extreme conditions prevail in space, presenting a tough challenge for satellite communications. With the Fraunhofer On-Board Processor (FOBP), experiments can be conducted in space to explore whether new technologies are operational under real conditions.
Microsoft, Google Join as Sponsors for First-Ever AI Expo for National Competitiveness
04/19/2024 | SCSPThe Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a non-partisan, non-profit project dedicated to strengthening America’s long-term competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI), announced today two additional sponsors of the AI Expo for National Competitiveness.
Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Integrating Automation into the North American PCB Market
04/18/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPODan Beaulieu introduces James Chien from SAA Symtek Automation Asia and Jason Perry from Technica, who are bringing automation to the North American PCB market. They discuss their expertise in automation, equipment sets, and growing opportunities. The focus is on integrating automation into existing shops, considering hardware, software, and flexibility. They also discuss the challenges of modernizing domestic shops and the potential of expanding automation to other markets.