An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover touchdown safely on Mars. A whole bunch of important occasions should execute completely and precisely on time for the rover to land safely on February 18, 2021. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mark your calendars for reside touchdown commentary, information briefings, livestreamed Q&As, digital watch events, scholar actions, and extra.
NASA is inviting the general public to participate in digital actions and occasions because the company’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover nears entry, descent, and landing on the Pink Planet, with landing scheduled for about 3:55 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 18.
Dwell protection and touchdown commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will start at 2:15 p.m. EST on the NASA TV Public Channel and the company’s website, in addition to the NASA App, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion, and THETA.TV.
Among the many many firsts with this mission is the company’s first-ever Spanish-language show for a planetary touchdown. On Thursday, February 18, at 2:30 p.m., NASA will air “Juntos perseveramos,” a present that may give viewers an outline of the mission to Mars and spotlight the position Hispanic NASA professionals have had in its success.
Throughout touchdown, the rover will plunge by means of the skinny Martian ambiance at greater than 12,000 mph (about 20,000 kph). A parachute and powered descent will sluggish the rover all the way down to about 2 mph (3 kph). Throughout what is called the sky crane maneuver, the descent stage will decrease the rover on three cables to land softly on six wheels at Jezero Crater.
Perseverance is also carrying a know-how experiment – the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – that may try the primary powered, managed flight on one other planet.
“If there’s one factor we all know, it’s that touchdown on Mars is rarely straightforward,” mentioned NASA Affiliate Administrator for Communications Marc Etkind. “However as NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance has a rare engineering pedigree and mission workforce. We’re excited to ask all the world to share this thrilling occasion with us!”
NASA is providing some ways for the general public to take part and keep updated on touchdown data, mission highlights, and interplay alternatives.
Watch and Take part Just about
Join with like-minded house fanatics, obtain a NASA Social badge, ask questions, and participate in different digital actions by signing up for the Perseverance Rover Virtual NASA Social event.
NASA additionally will present a virtual guest experience for members of the general public throughout touchdown, with notifications about mission updates, curated mission sources, and a digital passport stamp accessible after touchdown.
Keep related and let individuals know you’re following the mission on Twitter, Fb, and Instagram. Be part of the dialog, ask questions, and get solutions on-line through the use of #CountdownToMars.
Observe and tag these accounts:
Twitter: @NASA, @NASAPersevere, @NASAMars
Fb: NASA, NASAPersevere
Instagram: NASA
At 7 p.m. EST Tuesday, Feb. 16, a NASA Social reside present previewing touchdown day will stream reside by way of the JPL YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
You can also observe each step of entry, descent, and touchdown with this visualization, and get a preview of all the joy with a brand new video:
All landings on Mars are troublesome, however NASA’s Perseverance rover is making an attempt to the touch down in probably the most difficult terrain on Mars ever focused. The extreme entry, descent, and touchdown section, often known as EDL, begins when the spacecraft reaches the highest of the Martian ambiance. Engineers have referred to the time it takes to land on Mars because the “seven minutes of terror.” Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Alternatives for College students, Academics, Educators
Design, construct, and land your individual spacecraft – identical to NASA scientists and engineers do. Be part of NASA’s Mission to Mars Student Challenge, the place school rooms, casual schooling teams, households, and people will be capable of take part in touchdown week question-and-answer classes with mission specialists and submit scholar questions and work that may very well be featured throughout NASA broadcasts main as much as and on touchdown day.
A Mars 2020 STEM toolkit additionally is out there, with tales on the scholars who named Perseverance and Ingenuity, alternatives to code your individual Mars exploration video games, and extra.
Be part of scientists from NASA and JPL at a briefing of the National Academies House Research Board and Aeronautics and House Engineering Board Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 11:30 a.m. EST to listen to extra about Perseverance’s journey to Mars’ Jezero Crater, NASA’s Mars Sample Return, and the challenges the workforce has overcome. Contributors embrace:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA affiliate administrator for science
- Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division
- Bobby Braun, Mars Pattern Return program supervisor at JPL
- Matt Wallace, deputy challenge supervisor, Mars 2020 at JPL
- Katie Stack Morgan, Mars 2020 deputy challenge scientist at JPL
Interactive Experiences
You can also check out a digital picture sales space that means that you can pose subsequent to the Perseverance rover, hearken to the variations between sounds on Mars and Earth, and take a look at different interactive experiences on the mission’s website.
Ship Your Identify to Mars, Once more!
Perseverance is carrying three dime-size chips with 11 million names submitted by individuals all around the world. Anybody who missed the possibility to ship their title on Perseverance can signal as much as ship their title on a future Mars mission at:
https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020
Lighting Cities Pink Across the World
To have fun Perseverance’s Pink Planet touchdown, the Empire State Constructing in New York will gentle its tower crimson on Tuesday, Feb. 16, beginning at sundown till 2 a.m. EST the next morning. As well as, the Los Angeles Worldwide Airport gateway pylons will glow crimson from sunset on Wednesday, Feb. 17, by means of dawn Friday, Feb. 19. Different websites in america recognizing the upcoming touchdown embrace choose buildings alongside the Chicago skyline, such because the Adler Planetarium. NASA invitations cities across the nation and world to take part in “lighting the city crimson.”
Extra Assets
Press kits for the Perseverance rover landing and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter can be found and have deeper dives into the mission and science, in addition to hyperlinks to picture and video sources.
A Perseverance landing toolkit offers extra particulars about all of the actions deliberate for touchdown week, in addition to extra hyperlinks for studying extra concerning the rover and helicopter.
NASA Televised Occasion Schedule
Along with social media protection, NASA TV will air a lot of occasions main as much as, together with, and following the touchdown.
Members of the general public might ask questions on social media through the occasions utilizing #CountdownToMars.
The next occasions at the moment are scheduled to air reside (all instances Japanese). Please verify the NASA TV schedule for the most recent updates:
Tuesday, February 16
1 p.m. – Information convention: Mission engineering and know-how overview
3:30 p.m. – Information convention: Mission science overview
Wednesday, February 17
1 p.m. – Information convention: Mission touchdown replace
3 p.m. – Information convention: Trying to find Historical Life at Mars and in Samples Returned to Earth
Thursday, February 18
2:15 p.m. – Dwell touchdown Broadcast on the NASA TV Public Channel and on-line.
- As well as, an uninterrupted clear feed of cameras from inside JPL Mission Management, with mission audio solely, will probably be accessible beginning at 2 p.m. on the NASA TV Media Channel and at JPL’s Raw YouTube channel.
A 360-degree livestream of the Mars touchdown from inside mission management, together with touchdown commentary, will probably be accessible on the JPL’s main YouTube channel.
2:30 p.m. – “Juntos perseveramos,” the Spanish-language reside touchdown commentary present, will air on NASA en Español’s YouTube channel.
Roughly 3:55 p.m. – Anticipated Perseverance landing on Mars
No sooner than 5:30 p.m. – Postlanding information convention
Friday, February 19
1 p.m. – Information convention: Mission standing replace
Monday, February 22
2 p.m. – Information convention: Mission standing replace
To look at information conferences and commentary on-line, please go to:
http://www.youtube.com/nasajpl/live
An entire record of the way to look at on-line will be discovered at:
Extra Concerning the Mission
A key science goal of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, together with the seek for indicators of historic microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and previous local weather, pave the best way for human exploration of the Pink Planet, and would be the first mission to gather and cache Martian rock and sediment for later return to Earth. Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European House Company), would ship spacecraft to Mars to gather these sealed samples from the floor and return them to Earth for in-depth evaluation.
The Mars 2020 mission is a component of a bigger NASA initiative that features missions to the Moon as a strategy to put together for human exploration of the Pink Planet. NASA will set up a sustained human presence on and across the Moon by means of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans.
