NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV
Hi fellow space junkies and astro-nerds! Watch the live landing of the Perseverance rover. This is an historic moment. This is the heavies, biggest and most complex rover landing in human history - add to that, NASA is landing the rover in a very dangerous plot of land: inside the bed of an ancient crater lake. Scientists hope to find evidence of microbial life that may have existed billions of years ago.
Perseverance is bringing seven science instruments to Mars, including:
Mastcam-Z: Color cameras capable of panoramic and stereoscopic imagery. Most of the pretty pictures of the surface of Mars that we see will probably come from these cameras.
SuperCam: A combination camera, rock-vaporizing laser, and spectrometer that can identify the composition of rocks and soils in areas that the rover’s arm can’t reach.
SHERLOC: A close range microscopic camera and spectrometer that Perseverance can move within just a few centimeters of a rock for a detailed analysis, specifically designed to detect organic molecules. SHERLOC will also be observing bits of spacesuit material to see how well they handle the Martian atmosphere over time.
PIXL: Another microscopic analysis tool which includes an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to detect very small scale (like, grain of salt scale) changes in the composition and texture of rocks.
RIMFAX: Ground-penetrating radar that can detect water or ice 10 meters beneath the surface underneath the rover.
MEDA: A suite of sensors that measure temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, and atmospheric dust characteristics.
MOXIE: Moxie will try to convert Martian atmosphere (96% CO2) into useful oxygen with carbon monoxide as a byproduct via an electrolyzer heated to 800 degrees C, in a process that NASA says is a bit like a fuel cell running in reverse. Perseverance won’t be using the oxygen, but if the technology proves itself humans may one day use it for breathable air and rocket fuel.
Sample Caching System: A huge chunk of Perseverance is devoted to taking samples of the Martian surface, analyzing them, and storing them. These samples will be sealed up and left on the surface, with the idea that in a decade or so, another robot will come along, scoop them up, put them into a rocket, and fire them back to Earth. That last part hasn’t really been figured out yet, but Perseverance will be taking the first step anyway.
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