{"id":4004,"date":"2021-02-17T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/?p=4004"},"modified":"2021-03-02T22:45:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T22:45:30","slug":"nasas-perseverance-rover-has-landed-on-mars-now-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/nasas-perseverance-rover-has-landed-on-mars-now-what\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA&#8217;s Perseverance Rover Has Landed on Mars, Now What?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You\u2019ve seen Perseverance descent to Jezero crater on Mars in a nerve-breaking 7-minute drop, you\u2019ve watched as the parachute opened to reveal JPL\u2019s encrypted message, and you\u2019ve witnessed the celebrations on NASA\u2019s control room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It all went great, and the first panoramas from the red planet are already coming in, but what\u2019s next for the car-sized rover which is expected to spearhead the scientific research of the \u2018Mars 2020\u2019 mission?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hello, world. My first look at my forever home. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CountdownToMars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CountdownToMars<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dkM9jE9I6X\">pic.twitter.com\/dkM9jE9I6X<\/a><\/p>&mdash; NASA&#39;s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NASAPersevere\/status\/1362507436611956736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 18, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, for starters, everything needs to be checked to confirm its <strong>operational status<\/strong>. If something returns errors or nothing at all, it may have been damaged. If that\u2019s the case, the engineers will either have to develop an alternative plan or revise the <strong>experiment schedule<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, right now, every module, component, and instrument is being thoroughly checked. Next, Perseverance will receive some <strong>software updates<\/strong> that may carry fixes or workaround code based on what was found to be problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p class=\"flex-video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Perseverance Rover\u2019s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4czjS9h4Fpg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After that, the rover will take its <strong>first drive<\/strong>, but it\u2019ll be a pretty short one going only 5 meters away. There\u2019s a good spot to <strong>deploy the \u2018Ingenuity\u2019 helicopter, which should be ready to fly sometime this month<\/strong>. It\u2019ll take the rover 10 days to maneuver away and allow Ingenuity to do its thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In total, the entire set-up phase will last for about five months, so during this period, we will be seeing mostly the same landscape right from the center of the Jezero crater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hopefully, this will be nothing compared to the rover\u2019s expected lifetime. It\u2019s got 4.8 kg of plutonium, which should be enough to keep charging its two lithium-ion batteries for at least 14 years. The official mission duration is three years, but hey, this is called the Perseverance after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p class=\"flex-video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sun from Mars by NASA\u2019s Perseverance Rover on February 28, 2021\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/q1bEAPrHz-w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>During that time, NASA\u2019s rover will attempt to identify past environments that may have supported microbial life, will seek signs of the existence of such life, will collect rock samples, and will test the feasibility of producing oxygen directly from the Martian atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for Ingenuity, it\u2019ll give us an idea of whether or not flying drones on Mars is doable, which would be key to preparations for a future human settlement on the distant planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><small><em>Reference and Image Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/\">NASA<\/a><\/em><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve seen Perseverance descent to Jezero crater on Mars in a nerve-breaking 7-minute drop, you\u2019ve watched as the parachute opened to reveal JPL\u2019s encrypted message, and you\u2019ve witnessed the celebrations on NASA\u2019s control room. It all went great, and the first panoramas from the red planet are already coming in, but what\u2019s next for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4007,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions\/4007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}