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| The nose cone containing Mars Perseverance rover is manoeuvred onto its Atlas V rocket. Courtesy NASA/JPL - Caltech |
The original launch date of 20 July was delayed after a line of oxygen sensors that monitors the levels of liquid oxygen propellant in the vehicle, gave back off-nominal data. The problem has been fixed and the launch window extends now to 15 August. Fingers crossed for 30 July.
I have now had my Boarding Pass stamped as I join 10.9 million people, whose names have been stencilled onto three chips on Perseverance, on a journey to Mars landing at Jezero Crater on February 18 2021.
2 comments:
At the risk of being a bit flippant may I ask if Rover will wear a face mask when it lands?
Sorry, Im not trying to belittle what I know is a massive technical achievement even before it gets to the landing point.
Sir Hugh - I assume you're worried about it carrying coronavirus? It's a serious question in that since Perseverance is going to search for signs of life on Mars, it has to be clean and not be carrying earthly bacteria etc. The rover can't be built 'sterile' so swabs and wipes are taken from the spacecraft as it's being built and it's put in an oven, various chambers and clean rooms to maintain cleanliness. If the rover does find signs of life the scientists need to be sure it came from Mars not Earth. Spores for example can, apparently,survive the journey through space.
None of the masks I have would survive the descent!
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