NASA’s Perserverance Mars rover has been sent to its new home on Earth

Did you know NASAIs next Tue. There is almost the same brother on earth to test the rover? Even better, this is the first time a replica of the Martian landscape has been toured.

As NASA’s Mars rover commits itself to space through the Red Planet, a twin-wheeled twin vehicle is ready to orbit the Earth.

The full-scale engineering version of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover – designed with wheels, cameras and powerful computers to help it operate autonomously – just moved into its garage home at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Is. This rover model passed its first driving test in a relatively warehouse-like assembly room. JPL To September 1, 2020. Engineers expect to take it to Mars Yard next week, where an area of ​​red dirt filled with rocks and other obstacles mimics the surface of the Red Planet.

In a garage in front of the Marsa Yard at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is a full-scale engineering model of NASA’s Persevere Mars rover. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech“The test mobility team can’t wait to finally get our test rover out,” said Anais Zarifian, JPL’s mobility test bed engineer. “This is a test robot that comes close to summarizing the actual missions of the mission – on Mars with wheels, eyes and brains – all working together – so this rover is going to be especially fun to work with. . ”

Wait, why does hard work require twins?

Commitment is not going to Mars with a mechanic. To avoid as many unexpected issues as possible after Rover Land on February 18, 2021, the team will need a rover of this Earth-based vehicle system test bed (VSTB) to know how to send commands when hardware and software are weak. Will perform before. Mars This rover model will be especially useful for completing a whole bunch of software tests so the team can send patches while on the way to Mars or after reaching the screen.

And just as a name of determination is an apt name – one that catches the hard work of getting a rover on its way to Mars in the midst of an epidemic – its twins have a name: Optimism. While Optimism is a summary of Twin’s working commitment to the mechanisms and instruments sent to Mars, the name also approves of the mantra of the team that spent two years planning and assembling it.

Matt Stumbo, who leads VSTB Rover in the Test Bed team, said: “That’s why we named it Test Rover Optimism to remind us of what we need to do to fully test the system. Our job is to find problems, not just problems Hope The work will work. As we work on issues with optimism, we gain confidence in our ability to operate on Mars. ”

Almost consistent

The optimism is almost identically the same: it is the same size, has the same mobility system and peak driving speed (0.094 mph, or 0.15 km), and represents the same special “head”, called the remote sensing mast. Is called. After the second phase of the building at the beginning of the new year, it will have a whole set of dedication to science equipment, cameras and computer “brains”, and a unique system for collecting rock and soil samples.

But since optimism resides in JPL, there are some earthly differences. For one thing, while the commitment is powered by a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (a type of nuclear battery that has reliably operated space missions since the 1960s), the optimism features a navel that Can be plugged in for power. The cord also provides an Ethernet connection, allowing the mission team to send and receive commands to optimize engineering data without having to set up a radio to use radio processors for communication. And while the commitment to keep warm in the cold environment of Mars comes with a heating system, Optimism relies on a cooling system to operate in the hot Southern California.

Welcome to the family

Optimism JPL is not the only VSTB rover. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, which has been exploring the red planet since landing in 2012, has a Maggiei (Mars automatic giant Gizmo for Integrated Engineering). Maggieu is assisting the C Rociti team with particularly challenging areas and drilling rock crossing strategies.

Optimism and Maggie will live side by side in the Mars Yard, providing JPL engineers with a two-car garage for the first time.

“The missions that are working need proper replicas of their systems for testing,” Stumbo said. “The Uruguay Mission learned a lesson from Maggie that was impossible for anyone else to learn. Now that we have T-Patmism, the Commitment Mission is well prepared to learn what they need to succeed on Mars. ”

Perseverance Rover’s astrobiology mission will look for signs of ancient microbial life. It will also feature the planet’s climate and geology, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and will be the first planetary mission to collect and catch marathon rocks and reguliths (broken rocks and dust). Subsequent missions, currently being considered by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency, will send spacecraft to Mars on Tuesday to collect these cash samples from the surface and for in-depth analysis on Earth.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Blaming astronauts returning to the moon by 2024, NASA will establish a continuous human presence on and around the moon by 2028 through NASA’s Artemis lunar research plans.

JPL, managed by Caltech for NASA in Pasadena, California, designed and managed the operations of the Presence and Curiosity rovers.