NASA’s Perseverance rover reaches halfway through its 314 million-mile journey to Mars

NASA has announced that its Perseverance rover is in the middle of its journey to Mars.

The vehicle launched atop a United Launch Alliances Atlas V rocket at 7:50 am ET on July 30 and has just covered 146.3 million miles.

This is exactly the same difference the spacecraft must make before reaching the Red Planet’s atmosphere, which NASA says will hit as a cargo rain at 11,900 mph on February 18, 2021.

Once Perseverance lands on Mars, it will walk to the base of an 820-foot deep crater called Jezero, a former lake that housed water 3.5 billion years ago.

It will then drill through a dusty surface and collect geological samples that will be cached around the planet and recovered by a follow-up mission around 2031.

Julie Kangas, a navigator who works on the Perseverance rover mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said: “ While I don’t think there will be a cake, especially since most of us work from home, it is however a rather precise milestone. “

“Next stop, Jezero Crater.”

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NASA has announced that its Perseverance rover is in the middle of its journey to Mars. The vehicle launched atop a United Launch Alliances Atlas V rocket at 7:50 am ET on July 30 and just traveled 146.3 million miles

Perseverance’s path to Mars follows a curved trajectory, as the journey from Earth to the planet is not a straight path like an arrow due to the gravitational influence of the sun.

“Even though we’re halfway through the distance we need to travel to Mars, the rover isn’t halfway between the two worlds,” Kangas explained. “In a straight line, Earth is 26.6 million miles behind Perseverance and Mars is 17.9 million miles ahead.”

The six-wheeled vehicle, which is the same size as a large car, is also accompanied by a four-pound autonomous helicopter called Ingenuity that will study the atmosphere of Mars.

The rover is seven feet tall, nine feet wide, weighs 2,260 pounds, and is based on Curiosity’s design but has been adapted to be adept at collecting geological samples.

Perseverance’s path to Mars follows a curved trajectory, as the journey from Earth to the planet is not a straight path like an arrow due to the gravitational influence of the sun

It is powered by a nuclear battery which consists of 10.6 pounds of plutonium in a container the size of a bucket.

Plutonium provides 2,000 watts of thermal power and will last for about 14 years.

Perseverance will hunt for “ biological signatures ” of past microbial life, and rock samples will be collected by another mission in 2026.

The rover will pierce the dusty surface and collect material in germ-free titanium tubes that will be placed in the belly of the vehicle – there are a total of 43 tubes to fill.

The six-wheeled vehicle, which is the same size as a large automobile, is also accompanied by a four-pound autonomous helicopter called Ingenuity that will study the atmosphere of Mars.

NASA aims to collect at least 20 samples with a variety of material that can be returned to Earth for further analysis.

NASA partnered with the European Space Agency on the follow-up mission that would send two or more spacecraft in 2026.

“In 2026, we will launch a mission from Earth to Mars to collect those samples and bring them back to Earth,” Bridenstine said.

“For the first time in history, we are carrying out a mission to return a champion to Mars.”

To do this, a secondary objective of Perseverance is to investigate whether the materials found on Mars can be used to facilitate return missions.