This 11-minute animation depicts key events of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, which will launch in late 2011 and land a rover, Curiosity, on Mars in August 2012. A shorter 4-minute version of this animation, with narration, is also available on our youtube page.
Mars Helicopter Attached to Perseverance Rover for July Launch
With the launch period of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover opening in 14 weeks, final preparations of the spacecraft continue at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the past week, the assembly, test and launch operations team completed important milestones, fueling the descent stage — also known as the sky crane — and attaching the Mars Helicopter, which will be the first aircraft in history to attempt power-controlled flight on another planet.
STORY — www.americaspace.com/2020/04/14/mars-helicopter-attached-to-perseverance-rover-for-july-launch-to-red-planet/
After the descent stage fueling, the system that will deliver the Mars Helicopter to the surface of the Red Planet was integrated with Perseverance. The helicopter, which weighs 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) and features propellers 4 feet (1.2 meters) in diameter, is cocooned within the delivery system. In one of the first steps in the day-long process on April 6, technicians and engineers made 34 electrical connections between the rover, the helicopter and its delivery system on the rover's belly. After confirming data and commands could be sent and received, they attached the delivery system to the rover.
Finally, the team confirmed the helicopter could receive an electrical charge from the rover. Before being deployed onto the surface of Jezero Crater, the Mars Helicopter will rely on the rover for power. Afterward, it will generate its own electrical power through a solar panel located above its twin counter-rotating propellers.
The helicopter will remain encapsulated on the rover's belly for the next year and will be deployed around the beginning of May — roughly two-and-a-half months after Perseverance's landing. Once the rover drives about 330 feet (100 meters) away and the helicopter undergoes an extensive systems check, it will execute a flight-test campaign for up to 30 days.
The Perseverance rover is a robotic scientist weighing 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms). It will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet's climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. No matter what day Perseverance launches during its July 17-Aug. 5 launch period, it will land on Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.
Credits: NASA
Shake, Rattle and Roll: Testing NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover lives up to its name by enduring a series of tests to prepare for its journey to the Red Planet. Tests for the mission were performed between September and December of 2019 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
This video highlights the following tests:
Spin test
Shake test
Mobility deployment test
Rover’s first unassisted stand
Solar test
Thermal vacuum test
Sample caching test
Drive test
The launch period for the Perseverance rover opens July 17, 2020. It will land on Mars February 18, 2021.
For more information on Mars 2020, visit: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA's Mars 2020 Mission | Everything You Need To Know
NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission & Perseverance Rover
This is Mars as viewed on NASA's awesome web-based portal, Mars Trek.
And this point here is the Jezero Crater, where NASA's Mars 2020 Mission will take place.
The launch window for the mission is between July 17th and August 5th of this year and centers around the Perseverance Rover.
The Perseverance is nearly identical to the Curiosity Rover except for redesigned wheels.
Reusing Curiosity’s design makes sense because Curiosity is an engineering marvel and saves NASA a lot of money in development costs.
Aside from the redesigned wheels, Perseverance also has a unique set of instruments needed for the mission.
The Mars 2020 Mission is just a part of NASA's overarching Mars Exploration Program.
The program has four key science Goals, in which the Perseverance will play a significant role in their achievement.
The first goal is to determine whether life ever existed on the planet, and this is why the Jezero Crater was chosen to be the site.
The crater may have contained a large 800-foot lake connected to rivers.
To help achieve this goal, the Perseverance is equipped with three amazing instruments.
— The Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry or PIXL.
— The Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals or SHERLOC.
— And the SuperCam.
PIXL is an X-ray Spectrometer, which allows Perseverance to detect signs of biofilm made by microbes that may have lived on the planet long ago when the climate was warmer.
At just 10 lbs, it is 50 times lighter than the typical lab spectrometer used for the same purpose.
SHERLOC also has a spectrometer, but it uses an ultraviolet laser to determine the chemical makeup of surfaces.
Last but not least is the SuperCam, which examines rocks and soils with a camera, laser, and spectrometers to seek organic compounds.
It can identify the chemical and mineral makeup of targets as small as a pencil point from a distance of more than 7 meters!
The second goal is to characterize the climate of Mars.
The rover will perform astrobiological investigations using the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer or MEDA.
MEDA will continuously measure the characteristics of the Martian atmosphere, including the direction and wind speed, temperature, and humidity, and also measures the amount and size of dust particles.
Dust storms can block out the sun for weeks every seven to 10 years, there are enormous dust storms that cover the entire planet.
And the data collected from MEDA will help predict weather conditions that the first astronauts will face and the eventual colonists.
The third goal is to Characterize the Geology of Mars by studying the rock record.
It will do this using the Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment or RIMFAX.
RIMFAX uses radar waves to uncover what lies beneath the Martian surface, capable of detecting ice or salty brines.
Additionally, the rover will use its percussive coring drill to collect rock samples and place them in sealed tubes.
The samples will eventually be placed on the planet's surface and possibly be collected on a future mars mission to be returned to Earth for further study.
Learning the Geology of Mars is foundational knowledge that is important for future colonists.
Lastly, the fourth goal of the Mars 2020 mission is to Prepare for Human Exploration.
The Perseverance has four sub-objectives for this goal, but we are going to zero in on the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment or MOXIE.
MOXIE is an experiment that aims to demonstrate the ability to produce oxygen from the Martian Atmosphere.
This is critical for two apparent reasons as astronauts and colonists need oxygen to breathe and it can be used as propellant for return trips back to Earth.
The MOXIE takes the Mars atmosphere and heats it up to 800 degrees Celsius, which allows the oxygen to be separated from the Carbon dioxide.
If this experiment is successful, NASA may send a dedicated mission to produce Oxygen on Mars, which would lay the groundwork for human missions and a colony.
So, all the instruments on the Perseverance are astonishing in their own right but to top it off, the rover is equipped with a helicopter.
If successful, the idea is for future Mars rover missions to be outfitted with drones that can scan the surrounding area for interesting objects and places for the rover to explore.
NASA has a long succession of successful Mars rover missions going back 23 years.
Hopefully, the Perseverance continues the succession of successful Mars rovers.
And hopefully, through its discoveries and experiments, it paves the way for the human missions to come.
Top 10 Extreme Trucks and Vehicles for Any Off-road Adventure
The majority of our episodes are rather serious and contain information about quality day to day vehicles that our viewers can buy and enjoy for daily driving. But this time we decided to have some fun and present to you a list of the meanest trucks and extreme all-terrain vehicles that exist around the globe.
You might think that they should be driven only in case of a full scale apocalypse on our planet, but be sure that there are some places around the world that require the most brutal vehicles the automotive industry can offer. So sit back and enjoy this amazing lineup that can take you to places where no foot may tread!
Jeep Wrangler-based Rezvani Tank: rezvanimotors.com/rezvani-tank/#rezvani-tank-specifications
Rezvani decided to test their skills in engineering an extreme utility vehicle with a menacing name TANK. This towering SUV is based on a Jeep Wrangler with an updated powertrain, a 6.4 Liter 500-horsepower V8.
ZAROOQ SandRacer 500GT: zarooqmotors.com
After being kept in the dark for more than a year, ZAROOQ SandRacer 500GT is finally ready for production. With only 35 units of this imposing off-road supercar being built, the price has skyrocketed from originally expected $100,000 to $450,000 at a minimum.
Avtoros Shaman: avtoros.info/landings/shaman
This is an 8 by 8 truck suitable for any terrain conditions, engineered and manufactured by the Russian company Avtoros. The installed powertrain consists of a four-cylinder Iveco F1C 3-liter turbo diesel and 6-speed manual transmission.
Toyota Tonka: toyota.com.au/hilux-tonka
Tonka is a brand that has been producing toy trucks, construction machinery and pickups for 70 years and to celebrate their history an interesting collaboration between Tonka and Toyota emerged. The prototype was built on the base of Toyota Hilux.
Ripsaw EV2 by Howe & Howe Technologies: ripsawtank.com
Ripsaw EV2, is an exclusive all-terrain vehicle from Howe & Howe Technologies with the price of $295,000. EV2 is an 8,000 pounds monster that rides on tracks and is powered by a 6,6-Liter turbo-diesel GM Duramax V8 engine.
Rally Fighter by Local Motors: localmotors.com
Rally Fighter is a two-door two-seater endurance car with a 6.2 Liter GM E-Rod V8 Engine that produces 430 hp and 424 pound-feet of torque. This automobile has a very sturdy frame, high clearance and heavy-duty suspension for off-road performance.
Sherp: sherp.ru
Sherp managed to get a solid position among the most capable off-road vehicles in the world. Its greatest advantage is 2 feet clearance, unique chassis and huge wheels without inner tubes, that help in conquering obstacles up to 3.3 feet in height.
Marauder from Paramount Group: paramountgroup.com/capabilities/land/marauder
Marauder is a 4 by 4 mine-protected vehicle that ordinarily civilians can buy after passing a background check and producing a $400,000 check.
DTV Shredder: bpgwerks.com
DTV Shredder – a scooter on tracks or a dual track vehicle, hence DTV, is a rather capable representative of personal off road transportation.
Ziesel: ziesel-adventures.com
Der Ziesel was engineered by the German company Mattro Mobility Revolutions as an all-electric rescue vehicle for sci resorts. From the first look Ziesel creates an impression of being an armchair on steroids.
Ghe-o Rescue: ghe-o.com/rescue---utility.html
The engineers of Ghe-o Rescue had an idea of creating a vehicle that could cope with any extreme situations and as a result save human lives.
«How To get to Mars» is a clip from the IMAX documentary «Roving Mars» from 2006. This is an edited short version.
My photos: plus.google.com/u/0/b/105656643463219506384/+aheli
DVD — Roving Mars 2006: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet @ amazon.com www.amazon.com/Roving-Mars-Spirit-Opportunity-Exploration/dp/B003XU7W0A
★ The Largest Stars in the Universe | Infographic Animation ► www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqAJnrL27OY
★ The Most Astounding Fact — Neil deGrasse Tyson | Kinetic ►Typography www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2DXqJ7mjKY
★ TOP 10 — Best of Hubble Space Telescope — 2015 ► www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmx19_0GX8o
Game Of Thrones — Theme (OneCamBand Western Cover) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rln_qHoWIqg
From Wiki: Spirit, MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover — A), is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity (MER-B), landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in late 2009, and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.
The rover completed its planned 90-sol mission. Aided by cleaning events that resulted in higher power from its solar panels, Spirit went on to function effectively over twenty times longer than NASA planners expected following mission completion. Spirit also logged 7.73 km (4.8 mi) of driving instead of the planned 600 m (0.4 mi), allowing more extensive geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission (the 90-sol prime mission) were published in a special issue of the journal Science.
On May 1, 2009 (5 years, 3 months, 27 Earth days after landing; 21.6 times the planned mission duration), Spirit became stuck in soft soil. This was not the first of the mission's «embedding events» and for the following eight months NASA carefully analyzed the situation, running Earth-based theoretical and practical simulations, and finally programming the rover to make extrication drives in an attempt to free itself. These efforts continued until January 26, 2010 when NASA officials announced that the rover was likely irrecoverably obstructed by its location in soft soil, though it continued to perform scientific research from its current location.
The rover continued in a stationary science platform role until communication with Spirit stopped on sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). JPL continued to attempt to regain contact until May 24, 2011, when NASA announced that efforts to communicate with the unresponsive rover had ended. A formal farewell was planned at NASA headquarters after the Memorial Day holiday and was televised on NASA TV.
Hope you enjoyed it!
The Most Expensive Vehicle On The Planet | Jay Leno's Garage | CNBC Prime
Jay visit the Mars Yard, a simulated Martian landscape test bed, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to get an up-close demonstration of the space agency's Mars Curiosity Rover, a $2.5 billion engineering effort. All-new Wednesdays 10P ET/PT
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The Most Expensive Vehicle On The Planet | Jay Leno's Garage | CNBC Prime