Mars Perseverance Rover opens each day launch window on Thursday, July 30, at 7:50 a.m. EDT.
From NASA
July 22, 2020 RELEASE 20-075
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Passes Flight Readiness Overview
The nostril cone containing NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is maneuvered into place atop its Atlas V rocket. The picture was taken at Cape Canaveral Air Drive Station in Florida on July 7, 2020.Credit: NASA/KSC
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission cleared its Flight Readiness Overview Wednesday, an necessary milestone on its method to the launch pad. The assembly was a possibility for the Mars 2020 group and launch car supplier United Launch Alliance to report on the readiness of the spacecraft, together with the Atlas V rocket, flight and floor hardware, software program, personnel, and procedures. The each day launch window on Thursday, July 30, opens at 7:50 a.m. EDT.
“Our deepest thanks go to the various groups who’ve labored so laborious to get Perseverance able to fly throughout these difficult occasions,” stated NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “This mission is emblematic of our nation’s spirit of assembly issues head-on and discovering options collectively. The unimaginable science Perseverance will allow and the daring human missions it is going to assist make potential are going to be inspirations for us all.”
“We’re happy to be passing one other milestone with the completion of the Flight Readiness Overview,” stated Matt Wallace, deputy undertaking supervisor for the mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. “However we’ll preserve our heads down by the ultimate prelaunch actions and the opening of the launch window subsequent week, till we’re sure this spacecraft is safely on its manner. Mars is a troublesome buyer, and we don’t take something with no consideration.”
With all of the connections between the spacecraft and Atlas V launch car full, the vast majority of enterprise remaining for Mars 2020’s Meeting, Take a look at, and Launch Operations (ATLO) group entails testing each one of many multitude of programs and subsystems onboard the rover, aeroshell, cruise stage, and descent stage.
“NASA can’t wait to take the subsequent steps on the floor of Mars with Perseverance,” stated Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The science and expertise of this mission are going to assist us tackle main questions in regards to the geologic and astrobiologic historical past of Mars that we’ve been engaged on for many years, and we’re excited to take the entire phrase with us on this journey.”
“At this level, the spacecraft has been powered on and can stay so across the clock,” stated Dave Gruel, ATLO supervisor for Mars 2020. “The launch operations group will proceed to observe the well being of the spacecraft to make sure it’s ‘Go’ for launch – nothing glamorous, however an necessary a part of the job.”
The spacecraft and launch groups have yet one more main assessment to finish. Scheduled Monday, July 27, the Launch Readiness Overview is the final important checkup earlier than the mission receives remaining approval to proceed with launch.
“At current, every thing is inexperienced throughout the board,” stated Wallace. “Everybody concerned with this endeavor, from the spacecraft group to the launch car group to these working the vary, are trying ahead to seeing Perseverance start its long-awaited flight to Mars.”
Round 1 p.m. EDT on July 27, or roughly one hour after the Launch Readiness Overview ends, the company will maintain a preflight information convention that may air reside on NASA Tv and the company’s web site.
Different prelaunch briefings additionally will happen July 27, and Tuesday, July 28. A full checklist of media briefings for the Mars 2020 mission launch is accessible right here:
https://go.nasa.gov/39inOsn
In February 2020, NASA’s Perseverance Rover started its lengthy journey to Mars by first touring throughout america. The rover was constructed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California after which fastidiously packed and flown to NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle in Cape Canaveral, Florida. There, engineers built-in the rover with the spacecraft that carries it to Mars, and the Atlas V rocket chosen to ship it on its manner.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Perseverance rover’s astrobiology mission will seek for indicators of historic microbial life. It’ll additionally characterize the planet’s local weather and geology, pave the best way for human exploration of the Pink Planet, and be the primary planetary mission to gather and cache chosen samples of Martian rock and regolith (damaged rock and mud). Subsequent missions, at the moment into consideration by NASA in cooperation with ESA (European Area Company), would ship spacecraft to Mars to gather these cached samples from the floor and return them to Earth for in-depth evaluation.
JPL, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, is constructing and can handle operations of Perseverance for NASA. The company’s Launch Providers Program, based mostly on the company’s Kennedy Area Middle in Florida, is chargeable for launch administration. The Mars 2020 mission with its Perseverance rover are a part of America’s bigger Moon to Mars exploration strategy that features missions to the Moon as a method to put together for human exploration of the Pink Planet. Charged with sending the primary girl and subsequent man to the Moon by 2024, NASA will set up a sustained human presence on and across the Moon by 2028 by NASA’s Artemis program.
For extra details about the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
For extra about NASA’s Moon to Mars plans, go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/subjects/moon-to-mars
-end-
HT/Joel O’Bryan
Like this:
Loading…