Mars 2020 Missions

namloc1980 · 09-06-2020 11:02AM #1

Thought it would be interesting to put up some info on the upcoming launch window from Earth to Mars in July/Aug. There are currently 3 missions planned to launch towards the Red Planet in July and they are all quite different from each other.

1. NASA Mars 2020. This consists of a rover "Perseverance" which is similar to the Curiosity rover currently on Mars as well as a technology demonstrator "Ingenuity" which is a helicopter and hopefully will be the first aircraft to fly on another solar system body beside Earth. The rover will land in an ancient flood plain on Mars.

NASAs-Perseverance-Mars-rover-Phys.org_.jpg

NASAs-Perseverance-Mars-rover-Phys.org_.jpg

Some interesting aspects of this rover that makes it different to the Curiosity rover is that it will cache the samples it collects into isolated tubes which can be retrieved in a future sample return mission. It is also carrying an experiment which will seek to chemically extract oxygen from the Martian atmosphere (95% carbon dioxide) - this is a significant in-situ experiment of a technology that will be crucial for future human exploration of Mars. Oxygen being key to human survival (obviously!) and also as an oxidizer for fuel.

Launch window opens on 17th July and it will fly on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral. It will reach Mars in Feb 2021.

2. China Tianwen-1. This mission consists of an orbiter and a lander with a rover. This will be China's second effort to send a probe to Mars - the first one, which was piggybacking on a Russian probe, failed to leave Earth orbit in 2011.

f5597412-a403-11ea-8ea0-d7434be00753_image_hires_020825.jpg?itok=fNat1l5H

Due to launch at the end of July it will enter Mars orbit in Feb 2021 and the plan is for the lander/rover to descend to the surface in April 2021.

3. UAE Mars Hope Mission. The third mission comes from the UAE and is an orbiter. It has a relatively simple set of instruments consisting of a high resolution camera and a UV/Infrared imager. Scheduled to launch 14th July on board a Japanese rocket from the Tangasheima launch centre in Japan.

The European Space Agency had planned to send a rover to Mars this year as well but due to delays that has been put back to the 2022 launch window.

Capt'n Midnight · 09-06-2020 11:29PM

https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/

July 14 H-2A • Emirates Mars Mission
Launch time: 2051:27 GMT (4:51:27 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

July 17 Atlas 5 • Mars 2020
Launch window: 1300-1440 GMT (9:00-10:40 a.m. EDT)
Launch site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

July Long March 5 • Tianwen 1
Launch time: TBD
Launch site: Wenchang, China

JupiterKid · 10-06-2020 07:01PM

I wish all of these missions the very best of success!

Didn’t even know that the UAE was planning a Mars mission. Obviously they have no shortage of money, and it seems to me like a prestige thing for them - would they even have their own in-house science team or has it all been outsourced?

namloc1980 · 10-06-2020 07:18PM

JupiterKid wrote: »

I wish all of these missions the very best of success!

Didn’t even know that the UAE was planning a Mars mission. Obviously they have no shortage of money, and it seems to me like a prestige thing for them - would they even have their own in-house science team or has it all been outsourced?

It was built locally at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai, but would assume some international assistance also.

namloc1980 · 24-06-2020 10:25PM

Interesting video of the deployment sequence of the Ingenuity helicopter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ehz7pHprk

namloc1980 · 01-07-2020 03:08PM

The launch of the Perseverance rover has been deferred to the 30th July. The original launch date was the 17th July but it's been delayed due to some technical issues with the Atlas V rocket. It has lost 13 days of its launch window which is expected to close on the 15th August. If it doesn't launch during this window it'll have to be stored away until the next window opens in August 2022.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/30/nasa-delays-mars-rover-launch-to-no-earlier-than-july-30/

namloc1980 · 17-07-2020 01:01AM

Quick update on these:

UAE Hope mission launch deferred to the 20th at the earliest due to poor weather at the launch site in Japan.

Chinese Tianwen-1 has rolled out to the launch pad for an expected launch on the 23rd.

.

NASA 2020 rover launch set for the 30th which is about 2 weeks later than planned initially due to some technical issues with the Atlas V rocket.

tricky D · 19-07-2020 09:47PM

T -10 mins

Feed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXsh4bQ52zY

Capt'n Midnight · 19-07-2020 11:30PM

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/07/19/h-2a-emirates-mars-mission-mission-status-center-2/

namloc1980 · 23-07-2020 07:40AM

China successfully launched its Tianwen-1 mission overnight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXYkS6VIVCQ

star gazer · 29-07-2020 10:27AM

Mars 2020 Perseverance is still on for tomorrow at 07.50 am EDT (12:50 pm here). nasa

The launch period is approximately three weeks, from July 30 to August 15. The duration of the daily launch window varies from day to day. The launch windows will last approximately two hours, with a unique launch opportunity every five minutes.

The Atlas V rocket has rolled out to it's launch pad at the Kennedy Space centre, Florida.

https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1288203197698449411

US2 · 30-07-2020 11:25AM

Less than half hour till lift off for perseverance.

https://youtu.be/JIB3JbIIbPU

namloc1980 · 30-07-2020 11:57AM

Excellent launch! Exciting times. Fast forward now to landing next February!

30-07-2020 11:57AM

RTE news now showing it, watching it with the kids. Amazing stuff from the on board cameras.

AMKC · 30-07-2020 12:03PM

Wow oh. Just watched it te NASA Perserverance mission take of on on Sky News. Hope it is a success. It will be around December when it gets there. Am I right?

namloc1980 · 30-07-2020 12:04PM

AMKC wrote: »

Wow oh. Just watched it te NASA Perserverance mission take of on on Sky News. Hope it is a success. It will be around December when it gets there. Am I right?

Middle of February 2021

Hector Savage · 30-07-2020 12:08PM

Lucky perserverance!!!

Get's off this crazy rock !

Nice launch, loved the jettison shots on the edge of space

irishgeo · 31-07-2020 06:16PM

It's got the ability to record the landing phase but won't send the video back till later.

The test of drone/helicopter technology could be interesting.

jkforde · 06-02-2021 10:50PM

Really looking forward to watching the landing, hopefully will be able to convey the awesomeness on this to my two young lads.. have ye checked out the billion pixel panoramic vistas from Curiosity? can't wait what this yoke is going to send back (hopefully those cores of course!)

Capt'n Midnight · 07-02-2021 01:16AM

China's Tianwen-1 probe has sent back its first image of Mars,

The robotic craft ignited one of its engines to "make an orbital correction" Friday and was expected to slow down before being "captured by Martian gravity" around February 10, the agency said.

The five-tonne Tianwen-1 includes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a rover that will study the planet's soil.

jkforde · 07-02-2021 10:03AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

China's Tianwen-1 probe has sent back its first image of Mars,

never ceases to amaze me, let's not ever take this for granted, a pure tonic to the perennial madness down here

on that note, APOD new tab extension (by Trav) on chrome is another great way to stay inspired!

Capt'n Midnight · 07-02-2021 09:36PM

No Mars probe in ages and then a whole bunch of them show up.

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-uae-probe-trio-mars-missions.html

The first Arab space mission, the UAE's "Hope" probe, is expected to reach Mars' orbit on Tuesday, making it the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month.
...

The spacecraft must slow significantly to be captured by Martian gravity, rotating and firing all six of its Delta-V thrusters for 27 minutes to reduce its cruising speed of 121,000 kilometres (about 75,000 miles) per hour to about 18,000 kph.

The process, which will consume half of its fuel, will begin on Tuesday at 1530 GMT and it will take 11 minutes for a signal on its progress to reach ground control.

AMKC · 07-02-2021 10:46PM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

No Mars probe in ages and then a whole bunch of them show up.

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-uae-probe-trio-mars-missions.html

A bit like waiting for a bus. None shows up then 3 come along at one time. Typical.

JupiterKid · 09-02-2021 07:50PM

Success for the UAE Hope Mars Orbiter mission - Mars Orbit Insertion was successful.

Link:
https://www.space.com/uae-hope-mars-mission-orbit-insertion-success

Next up - Tianwen Chinese Mars Orbiter and Lander....

JupiterKid · 11-02-2021 04:27AM

And China’s ambitious Tianwen 1 Mars orbiter and lander mission successfully achieved Mars orbit yesterday!

Now we await the arrival of NASA’s Perseverence mission.

josip · 18-02-2021 09:35AM

I'd be more relaxed if they were using exactly the as what had worked in the past.

Perseverance is deploying a new technology called Range Trigger that decides the precise moment to deploy, based on the craft's position relative to the landing site.

The mission will also see another technology deployed for the first time: the "Terrain Relative Navigation" (TRN) system that uses a special camera to identify surface features and compare them to an onboard map where engineers pre-programmed the safest landing sites.

Shlippery · 18-02-2021 12:12PM

Looking forward to this tonight! I imagine we don't see footage for a while right? I can't remember how the live events worked in the past.

I guess we get radio comms after those 7 minutes confirming touchdown or not?

thomil · 18-02-2021 01:36PM

Shlippery wrote: »

Looking forward to this tonight! I imagine we don't see footage for a while right? I can't remember how the live events worked in the past.

I guess we get radio comms after those 7 minutes confirming touchdown or not?

The way I understood yesterday‘s NASA live stream on the upcoming landing, but I doubt we‘ll se anything but basic telemetry until well after the landing. While its initial approach, probably until parachute deployment, will happen in direct contact with Earth, and as such we should at least be receiving some basic data, the final stage of the landing will happen without direct line of sight to Earth.
Therefore, Perseverance will utilise the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the MAVEN probe, both in orbit around Mars, as relay stations. MRO is in pretty much constant communication with Earth, but has a pretty low bandwidth for Perseverance to utilise, so anything beyond basic telemetry is out of the question. MAVEN can offer a lot more bandwidth, but it is not in constant contact with NASA‘s Deep Space Network, and it will be several hours until it sends its data back.

irishgeo · 18-02-2021 01:51PM

thomil wrote: »

The way I understood yesterday‘s NASA live stream on the upcoming landing, but I doubt we‘ll se anything but basic telemetry until well after the landing. While its initial approach, probably until parachute deployment, will happen in direct contact with Earth, and as such we should at least be receiving some basic data, the final stage of the landing will happen without direct line of sight to Earth.
Therefore, Perseverance will utilise the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the MAVEN probe, both in orbit around Mars, as relay stations. MRO is in pretty much constant communication with Earth, but has a pretty low bandwidth for Perseverance to utilise, so anything beyond basic telemetry is out of the question. MAVEN can offer a lot more bandwidth, but it is not in constant contact with NASA‘s Deep Space Network, and it will be several hours until it sends its data back.

animation and live feed of mission control. Not much they can do now landing code will have been uploaded. they will get notifications of events happening. It's a 20min dealy so it have already gone through the landing before even a squak is heard.

Shlippery · 18-02-2021 03:45PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqqaW8DCc-I Fresh video on Perseverance from an Irish lad with a great channel!

tigerboon · 18-02-2021 04:42PM

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/

Viewing information etc. Send your name to Mars on the next mission and other fun stuff

Mars 2020 Missions

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