ApolloHoax.net

Off Topic => General Discussion => Topic started by: apollo16uvc on February 18, 2021, 12:03:37 PM

Title: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: apollo16uvc on February 18, 2021, 12:03:37 PM
Perseverance will land on Mars at:
3:55 PM    Eastern
2:55 PM    Central
1:55 PM    Mountain
12:55 PM  Pacific
8:55 PM   GMT

NASA Live Stream:



I really think this NEEDS to work properly and NOT crash. Such a failure would be a huge demoralization factor for the American people.

Of course the news networks and by extension, the general public never have, never will and do not understand the risks involved. You would not fathom how phenomenally ignorant people are of space exploration.
Cue the news network blathering that space is too hard and a waste, and that we just need to give up on reaching our maximum potential as the sapient species in our solar system, if not our galaxy.

In a rational world, the future of everything following shouldn’t rely on individual missions or shortfalls. Unfortunately that’s how western society works anymore.
“Oh we failed, so now we should just give up”

There’s little more depressing to me than reading comments of anti-space colonization know-it-all’s on YouTube giving endless reasons why we can’t do anything including wipe our own ass- proverbially speaking.

If we can’t bother to live up to and exceed what a prior generation did... then I suppose there would be nothing more to say.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: gillianren on February 18, 2021, 12:59:09 PM
A friend from high school works for JPL (in the business office, but it still counts), and she clued me into the thing where you can get your name put on it.  So the kids' and my names are going to be on Mars today.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: JayUtah on February 18, 2021, 04:03:43 PM
Well, that was exciting!
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: gillianren on February 19, 2021, 10:08:10 AM
Simon agrees!  Irene . . . did not entirely understand what was going on.  Simon and I then spent a while discussing the relative distances and how impressive a feat the whole thing was.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: bknight on February 19, 2021, 10:53:44 AM
Well, that was exciting!

I'll be interested in the videos with sound of the landing.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: bknight on February 19, 2021, 11:59:06 AM
A friend from high school works for JPL (in the business office, but it still counts), and she clued me into the thing where you can get your name put on it.  So the kids' and my names are going to be on Mars today.

Mine is also on Mars.  ;D
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: JayUtah on February 19, 2021, 01:20:57 PM
NASA TV posted the link for people to do the same to other missions.  My physical signature is on an interior insulation blanket of Echostar IV.  Just my luck, the Klingons will probably blow it up.

In contrast to what apollo16uvc writes about the general public, I like to think that the regulars here have some idea of the complexity of space travel by virtue of participating in the Apollo discussions.  But even with that in mind, the colossal complexity of this type of Mars landing mission is really hard even for some engineers to grasp.  We cross-train all the time.  But still it's a group effort, where every member of the team is a genius.  It really is the case that literally thousands of things all have to happen correctly at the right time.

I love the diversity represented in the NASA reporting.  It's good to be back in an American where lots of ages, sexes, body types, nationalities', and backgrounds contribute.  They all do their work under the American flag.  And I have to agree with the kid who named the rover:  you don't hear a capital rocket launch; you feel it.  All the stuff that happens later is predicated on your mitgation of the launch vehicle's best effort to shake your machinery to pieces on the way up.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: smartcooky on February 19, 2021, 03:22:58 PM
From 40,000 kmh to being gently lowered to the surface in 6 min 27 seconds.

That bears thinking about for a moment!
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: raven on February 19, 2021, 07:10:51 PM
We are sending robot cars to other planets, and this one has a helicopter and will leave presents for future explorers.
For all the problems in the world right now, I am glad we can do this.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: Peter B on February 20, 2021, 12:22:40 AM
[snip]

In contrast to what apollo16uvc writes about the general public, I like to think that the regulars here have some idea of the complexity of space travel by virtue of participating in the Apollo discussions.  But even with that in mind, the colossal complexity of this type of Mars landing mission is really hard even for some engineers to grasp.  We cross-train all the time.  But still it's a group effort, where every member of the team is a genius.  It really is the case that literally thousands of things all have to happen correctly at the right time.

[snip]

Regarding the complexity of the hardware, I remember a discussion (I think at UM but I don't remember for sure) where the use of the sky crane was criticised. Wouldn't it be easier and safer, went the argument, to land the rover on a landing platform with an extendable ramp, and simply roll the rover down it. The response was a quick calculation of how large the engines would have to be to softly land the rover plus a platform strong enough to support it, and consequently how high the rover would be off the ground (and how top-heavy the whole assembly), and consequently how long the ramp would have to be...The sky crane sure looks Rube-Goldberg-ish, but it hands down beats any other method available for a rover this massive.

And regarding the complexity of the landing process, I noticed the NASA TV video of the landing showed a check list of about 37 separate events from entry interface to touchdown. It must have been nerve-wracking to watch them getting ticked off one by one.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: smartcooky on February 20, 2021, 04:10:59 AM
[snip]

In contrast to what apollo16uvc writes about the general public, I like to think that the regulars here have some idea of the complexity of space travel by virtue of participating in the Apollo discussions.  But even with that in mind, the colossal complexity of this type of Mars landing mission is really hard even for some engineers to grasp.  We cross-train all the time.  But still it's a group effort, where every member of the team is a genius.  It really is the case that literally thousands of things all have to happen correctly at the right time.

[snip]

Regarding the complexity of the hardware, I remember a discussion (I think at UM but I don't remember for sure) where the use of the sky crane was criticised. Wouldn't it be easier and safer, went the argument, to land the rover on a landing platform with an extendable ramp, and simply roll the rover down it. The response was a quick calculation of how large the engines would have to be to softly land the rover plus a platform strong enough to support it, and consequently how high the rover would be off the ground (and how top-heavy the whole assembly), and consequently how long the ramp would have to be...The sky crane sure looks Rube-Goldberg-ish, but it hands down beats any other method available for a rover this massive.

And regarding the complexity of the landing process, I noticed the NASA TV video of the landing showed a check list of about 37 separate events from entry interface to touchdown. It must have been nerve-wracking to watch them getting ticked off one by one.

I read read or heard somewhere, perhaps on a TV program, Adam Steltzner, the guy primarily reponsible for the "skycrane" concept that has now successfully delivered two, two ton rovers onto the surface of Mars, say that over a hundred things have to happen in exactly the right order at exactly the right time, the failure of any one of which will cause the landing to fail.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: apollo16uvc on February 20, 2021, 07:14:48 AM
The microphones were listening during the landing. So maybe we will not just see a landing on an other world, but also HEAR it for the first time in spaceflight history.

That would be something.

Especially with the multitude of angles that were photographed during the landing synced up.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: gillianren on February 20, 2021, 10:42:57 AM
I've promised Simon that, on the someday trip back to my hometown of Altadena, California, we'll find a way to visit JPL.  I have a friend who works there, so we'll see what we can do.  They'd adopted my junior high, and I was on the campus at least half a dozen times for assorted school stuff even beyond the annual open house.  I may well have sat in the chairs we watched people jumping out of the other day, and I've looked into the clean rooms more than once.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: LunarOrbit on February 20, 2021, 09:17:03 PM
I've promised Simon that, on the someday trip back to my hometown of Altadena, California, we'll find a way to visit JPL.  I have a friend who works there, so we'll see what we can do.

Take me with you!  ;)
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: gillianren on February 21, 2021, 11:27:55 AM
Hey, if you go at the right time of year, they've got an open house!
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: Bryanpoprobson on February 22, 2021, 03:08:47 PM
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: bknight on February 22, 2021, 03:23:58 PM
Excelent video.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: JayUtah on February 22, 2021, 03:47:59 PM
That's how I want to be lowered into my grave.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: Peter B on February 22, 2021, 07:19:51 PM


Just an awesome video. Thank you for posting it.

The best bit for me was near the end with the three simultaneous images. Looking down to see the dust swirling on the ground is exciting, as was looking down from the descent module to the rover as it touched down. But the most special image for me was looking up from the rover to the descent module, seeing the engines from below.

Now while the three simultaneous videos are cool, what I'd like to see (because I wish I had the skills to do this) is a fully integrated video of the landing sequence. For example, when we look down at Mars when the heat shield was dropped, were we at any point looking at the actual landing site? What were the altitude and rate of descent at times other than when they were being announced? What was the status of the spacecraft during various points of the descent (for example, what was the period of time between the parachute being discarded and the descent engines being fired)?

(For an idea of what I'd like to see, I recently found again a video of the descent of Huygens to the surface of Titan which displays almost all of the data available, accompanied by a soundtrack created by linking sounds to various activities: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/10064/musical-descent-to-titan/
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: raven on February 23, 2021, 05:32:20 AM
That is just gob-smacking gorgeous. Gave me literal shivers. Thank you so very much for sharing. No doubt a Scott Manley vid going over every detail is in the works, but just watching was, wow, just so much wow.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: JayUtah on February 23, 2021, 01:49:30 PM
Seriously, most of us have spent our entire careers having to imagine what our little robots were doing thousands or millions of kilometers away.  Or worse, imagining what they might have been doing when some indication occurs that it has misbehaved.  It's a leap of faith.  You can see a 40-meter solar panel unfold in the clean room, supported by all the test fixtures and equipment.  But it's not the same.  On orbit, you see an indication that the bus voltage has risen.  So you can infer that the panel deployed.  But that's still just a number on a screen.  Every engineer wishes he were out there in a space suit watching his satellite chassis spread its wings.  And, more importantly, observing with his own eyes when something breaks.

So yeah, even seeing it after the fact, as an actual high-quality video stream, is amazing.  It convinces you the stuff really does work.
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: smartcooky on February 23, 2021, 01:56:50 PM
Oh, and the parachute contained a secret code!

No, seriously, it really did. This is not some froot loop conspiracy theory. The group at JPL who developed the supersonic parachute arranged the colour of the panels to spell out JPL's motto "DARE MIGHTY THINGS" in ASCII code, followed by JPL's map co-ordinates

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/lqgset/oc_decoding_the_stars_visualizing_the_message_in/

This has been confirmed by Perseverance chief engineer Adam Steltzner

"It looks like the internet has cracked the code in something like 6 hours! Oh internet is there anything you can’t do?"

The mismatching red and white stripes were the first clue. Puzzle solvers then converted those into binary code - ones for red, zeros for white. The ones and zeros were then separated into groups of 10, and each of those sections had 64 added to it.

A very neatly conceived and delivered Easter Egg

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eu4sc41VkAAS7to?format=jpg&name=small)
Title: Re: Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing
Post by: raven on February 24, 2021, 12:10:00 AM
As I was saying about Scott Manley.