As I write this, NASA's Perseverance lander is speeding toward Mars, and tomorrow it will hit the atmosphere and attempt to pull off a complex, highly choreographed, completely autonomous landing that will hopefully end with it sitting upright and intact in the middle of Jezero Crater.
It'll take 7 minutes from the moment Perseverance hits the upper reaches of the thin Mars atmosphere to the time it touches ground, and that time is often referred to as the 7 Minutes of Terror. The Curiosity rover followed a similar trajectory when it landed over 8 years ago, and now it's Perseverance's turn.
If you can, watch. Because science can do wonderful things - the obvious ones like explore new worlds and push the boundaries of engineering, and the less obvious ones like connecting us all to a common good back here on Earth. Either way, it promises to be quite the show.
In the meantime, the good folks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have put together another 7 Minutes of Terror video outlining the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) phase of the mission, and why we won't want to look away.
By Mike Wall
Space.com
February 16, 2021
Related:
NASA Perseverance 2020 Mars Rover Home Page, February 2021
Curiosity's 7 Minutes of Terror Video, August 2012
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