{"id":173457,"date":"2021-02-08T19:02:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T16:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/3-spacecraft-arriving-in-quick-succession\/"},"modified":"2021-02-08T19:02:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T16:02:29","slug":"3-spacecraft-arriving-in-quick-succession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/3-spacecraft-arriving-in-quick-succession\/","title":{"rendered":"#3 spacecraft arriving in quick succession"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#3 spacecraft arriving in quick succession<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. \u2014 After hurtling hundreds of millions of miles through space since last summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars.<\/p>\n

The stakes \u2014 and anxiety \u2014 are sky high.<\/p>\n

The United Arab Emirates\u2019 orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China\u2019s orbiter-rover combo. NASA\u2019s rover, the cosmic caboose, will arrive on the scene a week later, on Feb. 18, to collect rocks for return to Earth \u2014 a key step in determining whether life ever existed at Mars.<\/p>\n

Both the UAE and China are newcomers at Mars, where more than half of Earth\u2019s emissaries have failed. China\u2019s first Mars mission, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made it past Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are quite excited as engineers and scientists, at the same time quite stressed and happ<\/a>y, worried, scared,\u201d said Omran Sharaf, project manager for the UAE.<\/p>\n

All three spacecraft rocketed away within days of one another last July, during an Earth-to-Mars launch window that occurs only every two years. That\u2019s why their arrivals are also close together.<\/p>\n

Called Amal, or Hope in Arabic, the Gulf nation\u2019s spacecraft is seeking an especially high orbit \u2014 13,500 by 27,000 miles high (22,000 kilometers by 44,000 kilometers) \u2014 all the better to monitor the Martian weather.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s duo \u2014 called Tianwen-1, or \u201cQuest for Heavenly Truth\u201d \u2014 will remain paired in orbit until May, when the rover separates to descend to the dusty, ruddy surface. If all goes well, it will be only the second country to land successfully on the red planet.<\/p>\n

\"China's
China\u2019s Tianwen-1 probe en route to Mars on December 16, 2020.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The US rover Perseverance, by contrast, will dive in straight away for a harrowing sky-crane touchdown similar to the Curiosity rover\u2019s grand Martian entrance in 2012. The odds are in NASA\u2019s favor: It\u2019s nailed eight of its nine attempted Mars landings.<\/p>\n

Despite their differences \u2014 the 1-ton Perseverance is larger and more elaborate than the Tianwen-1 rover \u2014 both will prowl for signs of ancient microscopic life.<\/p>\n

Perseverance\u2019s $3 billion mission is the first leg in a US-European effort to bring Mars samples to Earth in the next decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say we\u2019re pumped about it, well that would be a huge understatement,\u201d said Lori Glaze, NASA\u2019s planetary science<\/a> director.<\/p>\n

Perseverance is aiming for an ancient river delta that seems a logical spot for once harboring life. This landing zone in Jezero Crater is so treacherous that NASA nixed it for Curiosity, but so tantalizing that scientists are keen to get hold of its rocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the scientists take a look at a site like Jezero Crater, they see the promise, right?\u201d said Al Chen, who\u2019s in charge of the entry, descent and landing team at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. \u201cWhen I look at Jezero, I see danger. There\u2019s danger everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steep cliffs, deep pits and fields of rocks could cripple or doom Perseverance, following its seven-minute atmospheric plunge. With an 11 1\/2-minute communication lag each way, the rover will be on its own, unable to rely on flight controllers. Amal and Tianwen-1 will also need to operate autonomously while maneuvering into orbit.<\/p>\n

Until Perseverance, NASA sought out flat, boring terrain on which to land \u2014 \u201cone giant parking lot,\u201d Chen said. That\u2019s what China\u2019s Tianwen-1 rover will be shooting for in Mars\u2019 Utopia Planitia.<\/p>\n

NASA is upping its game<\/a> thanks to new navigation technology<\/a> designed to guide the rover to a safe spot. The spacecraft also has a slew of cameras and microphones to capture the sights and sounds of descent and landing, a Martian first.<\/p>\n

\"An
An undated handout picture made available by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, USA shows an illustration of NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover landing safely on Mars.<\/figcaption>
NASA\/JPL-Caltech HANDOUT\/EPA-EFE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Faster than previous Mars vehicles but still moving at a glacial pace, the six-wheeled Perseverance will drive across Jezero, collecting core samples of the most enticing rocks and gravel. The rover will set the samples aside for retrieval by a fetch rover launching in 2026.<\/p>\n

Under an elaborate plan still being worked out by NASA and the European Space Agency, the geologic treasure would arrive on Earth in the early 2030s. Scientists contend it\u2019s the only way to ascertain whether life flourished on a wet, watery Mars 3 billion to 4 billion years ago.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, considers it \u201cone of the hardest things ever done by humanity and certainly in space science.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US is still the only country to successfully land on Mars, beginning with the 1976 Vikings. Two spacecraft are still active on the surface: Curiosity and InSight.<\/p>\n

Smashed Russian and European spacecraft litter the Martian landscape, meanwhile, along with NASA\u2019s failed Mars Polar Lander from 1999.<\/p>\n

Getting into orbit around Mars is less complicated, but still no easy matter, with about a dozen spacecraft falling short. Mars fly-bys were the rage in the 1960s and most failed; NASA\u2019s Mariner 4 was the first to succeed in 1965.<\/p>\n

Six spacecraft currently are operating around Mars: three from the US, two from Europe and one from India. The UAE hopes to make it seven with its $200-plus million mission.<\/p>\n

The UAE is especially proud that Amal was designed and built by its own citizens, who partnered with the University of Colorado at Boulder and other US institutions, not simply purchased from abroad. Its arrival at Mars coincides with this year\u2019s 50th anniversary of the country\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting off the year with this milestone is something very important for the people\u201d of the UAE, said Sharaf.<\/p>\n

\"Spectators
Spectators watch as a Long March-5 rocket carrying the Tianwen-1 Mars probe lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China\u2019s Hainan Province July 23, 2020.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

China, hasn\u2019t divulged much in advance. Even the spacecraft\u2019s exact arrival time on Wednesday has yet to be announced.<\/p>\n

The China Academy of Space Technology\u2019s Ye Peijian noted that Tianwen-1 has three objectives: orbiting the planet, landing and releasing the rover. If successful, he said in a statement \u201cit will become the world\u2019s first Mars expedition accomplishing all three goals with one probe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coronavirus pandemic has complicated each step of each spacecraft\u2019s 300 million-mile (480 million-kilometer) journey to Mars. It even kept the European and Russian space agencies\u2019 joint Mars mission grounded until the next launch window in 2022.<\/p>\n

The flight control rooms will contain fewer people on the big day, with staff spread over a wider area and working from home. Desks have dividers and partitions. Masks and social<\/a> distancing are mandatory.<\/p>\n

Perseverance\u2019s deputy project manager Matt Wallace, who\u2019s working his fifth Mars rover mission, said the pandemic won\u2019t dampen the mood come landing day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think COVID\u2019s going to be able to stop us from jumping up and down and fist-bumping,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see a lot of happy people no matter what, once we get this thing on the surface safely.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

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“#3 spacecraft arriving in quick succession” CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. \u2014 After hurtling hundreds of millions of miles through space since last summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars. The stakes \u2014 and anxiety \u2014 are sky high. The United Arab Emirates\u2019 orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/02\/uae-mars-mission-01.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[92410,4973,5072,5026,67907,5019,52971],"class_list":["post-173457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2-8-21","tag-china","tag-mars","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}