NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover

[Blackpuddin]

Beati Dogu said:

Blackpuddin said:

What happens to the Sky Crane once it's dropped the rover? Video I just watched on the Beeb suggests it flies off again, but where to?

It flies off and crashes.

Edit: Here's a satellite view from NASA/JPL-Caltech showing the area around the Curiosity rover soon after landing.

Edited by Beati Dogu on Thursday 18th February 17:22

Not meaning to be a grinch or a yoghurt-knitter (I'm madly excited about all this), but it seems a shame that one of the earliest signs of human activity on Mars should be a pile of junk. Given its obviously sophisticated guidance systems it's a pity they can't do a controlled rather than a crash landing.

[Eric Mc]

They don't do a crash landing.

[Blackpuddin]

Eric Mc said:

They don't do a crash landing.

That's great.

[Eric Mc]

Honestly, they don't.

The rover is lowered quite gently onto its wheels. That's the whole point behind the Skycrane system. It allows the rover to be its own lander and to use its wheels as its "landing pads". Otherwise, it would have needed to sit on a special lander with legs and drive off the lander using a ramp, as all other rovers (apart from Curiosity) have done, whether on the moon or Mars.

Getting rid of the dedicated lander saves a massive amount of weight.

[generationx]

So what really happens to the Sky Crane Eric?

[CraigyMc]

generationx said:

So what really happens to the Sky Crane Eric?

It flies off and crashes, but Eric needs to understand the question he's being asked before he'll say so

[Clive Milk]

The Sky crane ends up at it's lowest potential energy possible, that's what happens to it, whether it works or not.

Nice to see 700k people watching this on NASA TV

Imagine the number of people is this was 1969 and the moon.

If this succeeds will get out the crisps, the brandy and the cigar. Not something I did for Buzz and Neil, I was only 18 months then.... ok, I just need any excuse nowadays to do the above

[colin79666]

Link to the live stream: https://youtu.be/gm0b_ijaYMQ

[skeeterm5]

They are taking their hands off the wheel - in the hands of the computers now.

Nerve racking for the whole team.

[RacerMike]

Live visualisation of the data here:

https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/mars2020/#/home?id=crui...

[eharding]

Touchdown!

[London424]

Nailed it!

[dickymint]

I'm actually in tears - amazing stuff!

[MartG]

Down safely, and first images received !

My name is now on Mars

[London424]

Pictures coming in

[BckFlash]

Goosebumps!

[Toltec]

RacerMike said:

Live visualisation of the data here:

https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/mars2020/#/home?id=crui...

Sort of live at least

[London424]

That reaction when they found out where it landed seemed like they may have been off a bit.

[chemistry]

Impressive stuff! Nice work mankind!

[Beati Dogu]

Nice job. They’ll get better pictures once they take the protective lens caps off if I remember from the other mission.