Wednesday 19 August - Mars 2020 Mars Ingenuity Helicopter

On 7 August, one week into its journey, Mars helicopter charged its batteries in flight for the first time in a space environment. It took eight hours for engineers at JPL to analyse the performance of the six lithium-ion batteries and bring their charge up to 35%, a low level charge state having been shown to be optimal for battery health during the nearly seven month long cruise to Mars.

The operation will be repeated every two weeks or so to maintain the optimal charge.

"This charge activity shows we have survived the launch and that so far we can handle the harsh environment of interplanetary space", said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter project manager at JPL. "We have a lot more firsts to go before we can attempt the first experimental flight test on another planet, but right now we are all feeling good about the future"

The helicopter will have a 30 Martian day (31 Earth days) flight test window and if successful will prove that powered flight is possible on another planet. This will allow for possible future aerial explorations of Mars with a second generation rotorcraft. (NASA JPL-Caltech) 

                                                                Courtesy NASA JPL - Caltech

And wait... I have had Perseverance and Ingenuity in our garden and sitting room. The following photographs are not photoshopped but are taken using an app from JPL. Sizing is unfortunately limited by the iPhone's screen size. 

Index to Mars 2020 posts: here

Thursday 30 July - NASA-JPL A perfect launch and Perseverance is on her way to the Red Planet

Note: there are likely to be quite a lot of these sort of posts in the coming months, primarily as a personal record of this important mission. My name being on one of the chips attached to Perseverance adds another dimension of course. I've already signed up to the next part of the mission in 2026 (and Lynne is coming with me!) - The Mars Sample Return Campaign, but more of that much later on. I hope some readers will find something of interest here, but I've not given up on the walking posts!



           
   

ULA's Atlas V-541 lifts off at 7.50am  (EDL) on 30 July carrying the Mars Rover 2020, Perseverance  

The whole event was streamed on NASA's YouTube Channel covering the launch and the rover's separation from the upper stage of the Atlas V to begin its six and a half month voyage to Mars. It's the best viewing I've had in years with interviews with the many engineers and scientists involved and presented by Dr Moo Cooper of JPL and Derrol Nail, Space Coast reporter, two of the most enthusiastic presenters you could hope for.

The upper stage's Centaur engine initially placed the 2020 rover into a parking orbit around Earth at T+ 0:11:27:9 then, after a 33 minute coast over the Atlantic and crossing South Africa, the Centaur re-ignited its RL-10C-1 engine, shutting down at T + 0:52:50:1. The burn, lasting almost 8 minutes accelerated the Mars 2020 spacecraft to escape velocity.

After reaching 24,785mph, the Centaur upper stage shut down and re-orientated itself into the position for release of the spacecraft. At T+ 0:57:32.8 Perseverance, enclosed in its aeroshell, separated from the Centaur upper stage over Indonesia. Twenty minutes later the first signals from the spacecraft were expected through a NASA tracking station in Canberra, Australia. Navigation data indicated that Perseverance was perfectly on course.

During the post-launch press briefing a couple of issues came to light:

First, the proximity of the space craft to Earth was saturating the ground station receivers of NASA's Deep Space Network which are tuned to receive faint signals from deep space. The receivers were therefore detuned and the antennas pointed slightly off-target from Perseverance thus bringing the signal within acceptable range. Telemetry (detailed data from the spacecraft) was restored. (See Tweet from Perseverance)

Secondly, data indicated that the spacecraft had entered safe mode as it passed over the night side of the Earth, a period known as an eclipse, becoming a bit colder than expected. All but essential systems turned off and safe mode was entered. The spacecraft is designed to put itself in safe mode if onboard computers detect that conditions are not within set parameters. 

NASA later said that the temperature disparity was in the liquid freon coolant loop, which dissipates heat from the centre of the spacecraft through radiators on the module carrying the rover to Mars. Modelling by the team at JPL predicted that this might happen but it was not possible to create the exact environment for pre-launch tests and no flight data from Curiosity Rover, launched in November 2011, was available since its trajectory did not include an eclipse.

Programmers had therefore set tight limits on key spacecraft parameters before launch and the cold conditions probably tripped a preset limit. Better a spacecraft go into safe mode, a stable and acceptable mode even when not required, than fail to do so when critical. It's not a problem and controllers tested then sent commands to bring the spacecraft back to nominal flight operations. 

Now on its interplanetary cruise, with several Trajectory Correction Manoeuvers (TCMs) along the way, the next stop is Jezero Crater. 

There may be many things wrong in the USA at the moment (they are not alone), but NASA's space programme, whether involving human or robotic exploration, is not one of them. 

Thanks to NASA-JPL for a superb broadcast and an inspirational endeavour. Go Perseverance!!

Animation : Centaur engine burn 2 (courtesy spaceflight.com) and for the Timeline

Module carrying Perseverance separates from Centaur upper stage (courtesy spaceflight.com)

Courtesy NASA

Perseverance and Ingenuity helicopter being enclosed in the aeroshell which will carry it safely to the Red Planet. (Courtesy NASA-JPL Caltech)

The name plate on board Perseverance - three chips top left

A tweet from Perseverance!

The Control Centre at JPL

Thanks to NASA-JPL's, Mars 2020 Deputy Project Manager, Matt Wallace for providing details of the 'issues' encountered by Perseverance and to Stephen Clark at spaceflightnow.com for the timeline.

Thursday 30 July - NASA-JPL Mars Rover Perseverance is on the launch pad

The Atlas V on Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. The large cone at the top houses Perseverance. (Courtesy NASA)

United Launch Alliance's Atlas V booster carrying NASA-JPL's Mars 2020 Rover, Perseverance, is due to launch from Pad 41at 7.30 am EDL (12.50 pm our time) today. Live broadcast begins 12 noon our time. Although I'm aboard in name only, I'm just (but not quite) as excited as if I were personally about to journey the 313,649,586 miles to Mars.

Monday 27 July - NASA-JPL Mars Perseverance launch date 30 July

The nose cone containing Mars Perseverance rover is manoeuvred onto its Atlas V rocket. Courtesy NASA/JPL - Caltech

The Mars Rover, Perseverance, was attached to the top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster on Tuesday 7 July, along with the aeroshell, cruise stage and descent stage.

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.

Wednesday 7 August - NASA-JPL I'm off to Mars in 2020

I launch in July 2020 on an Atlas V-541 rocket from Cape Canaveral Airforce Station and arrive at Jezero Crater, Mars, on 18 February 2021, a journey of 313,586,649 miles. I have my Boarding Pass already.

Atlas V launch (Courtesy Spacenet 101)

Jezero Crater. Courtesy NASA

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California is managed for NASA by the prestigious California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and is the centre for robotic exploration of the solar system. It also manages NASA's Deep Space Network.

Previous JPL missions include Voyagers 1 and 2, Cassini-Huygens, Kepler, Juno and last November, InSight successfully landed on Mars. I watched on NASA TV as Mission Control monitored the "7 minutes of terror" - the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) phase - which worked perfectly. Unfortunately, I missed getting onto the InSight flight.

"What on earth is he talking about", I hear you say.

Well, I subscribe by email to a number of NASA newsletters including JPL's 'Week in Review' and the first item on the 3 August issue concerned the Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Installation 2 (MEDLI2) on the Mars 2020 Aeroshell. The Aeroshell consists of a Thermal Protection System  (heat shield) and a back shell which will protect the Mars 2020 rover as it journeys to Mars and during the entry and descent through the Mars atmosphere at about 12,500 mph, slowing to 2mph in just 6 minutes.

"Flight data will allow the uncertainties in the models [used to predict the performance of an entry vehicle] to be further reduced leading to a more accurate prediction of the loads and performance" (Henry Wright, MEDLI2 project manager).

Currently large margins (100 - 200%) need to be allowed in predictions to ensure safe entry and descent. This data is of course vital for future human missions to Mars.

So what's all this about me going to Mars?

The Microdevices Laboratory at JPL will be using an electron beam to stencil submitted names onto a silicon chip with lines of text smaller than a human hair (75nm). My name is one of them!  The chips will be affixed to the Mars 2020 Rover.

My Boarding Pass, which includes my name of course.Courtesy NASA

JPL - Fuelling the 2020 Rover's power system (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator.) Courtesy NASA JPL

 JPL - The back shell which will protect the Rover during the descent to Jezero Crater. Courtesy NASA JPL

Coutesy NASA, JPL

The Rover's robotic arm will take core samples of the surface and analyse them sending data back to Earth but there's much more to this mission than that. More later perhaps, but in the meantime I'm looking forward to following the preparations for the mission my the long voyage to the surface of Mars. Even if it's just in name.

For now I continue to build my second Saturn V model though the Airfix version is not as enjoyable to build as the Revell was.