Beginning with the very first photographs, it was clear that NASA’s Perseverance rover tour to Mars was a breakthrough. The video’s opening shot of the supersonic parachute, the dropping of the warmth protect, the shot of the descent stage and the view of the rover itself, dangling beneath it had been riveting. They had been unprecedented.
Also unprecedented was the velocity at which pictures and movies arrived. Previous pictures from interplanetary house had at all times taken hours or days to reach. When Perseverance landed, the primary pictures had been accessible in seconds. Images from the primary video in a couple of minutes. When the primary movies arrived, they had been so good that NASA managers commented through the post-landing information convention that the company was going to have to begin labeling which had been actual and which had been animations.
While Perseverance has but to start its trek to the stays of a Martian river delta searching for life, the breakthroughs are persevering with. Managers revealed in a press release that the information hyperlink between the rover and its relay satellite tv for pc was working at eight megabits per second, practically the velocity of an Ethernet connection. And that was earlier than the high-gain antenna was deployed.
Off-the-shelf parts are commonplace
Inside the rover was an off-the-shelf Intel-based laptop working Linux. The cameras delivering these magnificent photographs got here from industrial video cameras constructed by Flir and accessible to anybody. The solely modifications NASA made had been to restrict the outgassing (the discharge of gasses from throughout the system) to guard different parts. The microphones which might be relaying sounds from the Martian floor are additionally industrial merchandise.
While Perseverance is a Mars Rover, it hasn’t but begun to rove. When it does, it can accomplish that as an autonomous car. But it’s already operated as an autonomous spacecraft. The touchdown sequence was dealt with by the craft itself. The Perseverance laptop managed the touchdown, and even used machine imaginative and prescient and radar to decide on its personal touchdown spot. NASA officers stated at a later convention that it was essentially the most tough touchdown ever tried by a spacecraft, but it surely allowed the rover to be positioned inside 5 meters of its supposed goal on a small spot of stage floor close to the river delta it’s going to discover.
When Perseverance reaches likely-looking spots, it can take samples of soil which scientists hope will present indicators of life. Tubes holding these samples can be left behind by the rover for a later mission, during which one other rover will choose the pattern tubes up, load them into one other spacecraft, which is able to finally return the samples to NASA.
Rovers are all about autonomy
Through all of this, a recurring theme is autonomy. Because Mars is simply too far-off to command the rover instantly, the perfect that NASA can do is to inform the rover what it needs it to do, after which let the rover do it. The stage of autonomy will permit the rover to perform extra over time than its predecessors might do.
Of course the rover will do greater than drop the occasional pattern tube. There’s additionally Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter. This small drone is at the moment housed below the rover, the place it may be dropped free, and as soon as Perseverance strikes out of the best way, can discover from the air. Like the rover, the helicopter is an autonomous car that can cowl a a lot bigger space than the rover can. It’s unclear what number of flights Ingenuity will make, however contemplating NASA’s luck with spacecraft, it might maintain flying for a really very long time.
The identical is true for Perseverance. NASA says that the rover is meant to function for 2 years, and has missions deliberate for that time period. But one among its predecessors, Opportunity, was…
