Published 11:38 IST, February 15th 2021
NASA's Mars rover Perseverance faces 'terror' before landing on the surface
NASA's Mars rover Perseverance is all set to land on the surface of the Red Planet later this week after completing more than seven months of grueling journey.
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NASA's Mars rover Perseverance is all set to land on surface of Red Planet later this week after completing more than seven months of grueling journey in deep . rover will touch down surface of Mars after entering Red Planet's atmosphere, but before that it will send a rio transmission to a NASA team back on Earth, monitoring journey of capsule. transmission from Mars takes at least 11 minutes to reach mission manrs on Earth, but full descend of Perseverance from top of atmosphere to Martian surface will take only 7 minutes, which scientists refer to as "seven minutes of terror".
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Perseverance rover will alrey have landed on surface of Mars, before rio transmission could get back to mission manrs on Earth, some 204 million kilometres away. So, scientists will get to kw about mission's success only after four minutes of its completion. Perseverance, which has an onboard laboratory to conduct various tests, will land on surface of Mars on February 18.
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Perseverance rover will be released from capsule some few hundred kilometres above Martian surface following which it will start making descend with help of Lander Vision System (LVS). LVS is equipped with navigation and or features to make landing for Perseverance as smooth as possible because of tricky terrain on Mars.
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What will Perseverance do?
NASA's Mars probe was launched in July 2020 during last year's window for launch to Red Planet. Perseverance, a six-wheeled robotic geologist, will search Jezero Crater after landing on Martian surface for signs of ancient life and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth. NASA says Jezero Crater is perfect place to search for signs of ancient microbial life because billions of years ago, w-bone-dry 45-kilometre-wide basin was home to an actively-forming river delta and lake filled with water.
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11:38 IST, February 15th 2021