CAP CANAVERAL, Fla. – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket rolled onto the platform on Tuesday, July 28 for the launch of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars.
The project is scheduled to take off from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in a two-hour window on Thursday, July 30, which will open at 0750 EDT (11:50 GMT).
The rocket emerged from the Vehicle Integration Facility (VIF) at SLC-41 at approximately 10:30 EDT (14:00 GMT) on Tuesday morning, before completing the first 1,800 feet (548 meters) of its adventure to the Red Planet. The gold and white rocket was perched on the cellular liberation platform; The adventure to launch pad took 35 or 40 minutes, with the rocket taking a break for some short ride breaks.
Together, the rocket and spacecraft weigh 1.8 million pounds. (820,000 kilograms) and the platform that employs cars and cellular devices under the cellular release platform. The 60-meter-high rocket reached the most sensitive point of the launch pad just after 11:00 EDT (15:00 GMT) and will remain perched on the most sensitive ramp until the countdown reaches 0 on Thursday morning.
When it takes off, the rocket will send the red planet to NASA’s newest red planet, nicknamed Perseverance. The nearly seven-month adventure will end with an intense series of touchdowns that, if all goes well, will position the robot the size of a car safely in Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021.
The rover will then spend at least a year on Mars, or nearly two Earth years, exploring an ancient river delta located in the Jezero crater. The site houses an ancient Martian lake length of Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. The river delta is one of the most productive places to look for symptoms of ancient Martian life.
NASA scientists do not expect to locate ancient fossils or bones, but are looking for evidence left through single-celled organisms that would possibly have inhabited the domain millions of years ago.
Before the cell phone can look for such traces, it will have to be released. To that end, NASA and ULA officials conducted a launch readiness review (July 27) and decided that the rocket was fit to fly.
“The review of the preparation for publication is complete and, in fact, we are in a position to publish it,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said yesterday at a press convention.
The Perseverance Mars rover is securely housed inside the rocket’s nose cone attached to the vehicle’s maximum sensitive. Flying in the toughest configuration of the moment, known as the 541 configuration, the rugged Atlas V will produce 2.3 million pounds. (1 million kg) take-off thrust. This force comes from the vehicle’s main RD-180 engine and an additional seasoning of the 4 forged rocket engines connected to the rocket.
“Don’t blink [when you see the launch],” ULA CEO Tory Bruno pleaded at the same press convention yesterday. He went on to say that the Atlas would jump off the platform because it carried a relatively small payload.
Preparations for launch began on July 7, when the rover, along with a small helicopter called Ingenuity, were encapsulated in the payload fairing and stacked on the most sensitive part of the rocket. The ingenuity will attempt to have the first helicopter fly over some other planet and embark on the long adventure to Mars attached to the ventral plate of perseverance.
Related: In pictures: NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover project to the planet
Engineers then spent two weeks conducting a series of tests to make sure the spacecraft was well connected to the rocket. Finally, on July 22, the last component was installed: the rover’s power source. Perseverance is based on a nuclear force generator called MMRTG. The specialized fuel source converts heat into electrical force that will force the rover to its lifespan.
The rover carries a set of clinical instruments, more than 20 other cameras and two microphones that will record the sound on Mars. This entire device provides the Perseverance rover with a special superlative: the most complex robot explorer NASA has sent into deep space.
In addition to conducting a series of clinical experiments, the rover is tasked with collecting samples of Martian soil and rocks that a long-term project will bring back to Earth. Once back on Earth, Martian samples will be used through scientists for decades to better perceive the history of the red planet.
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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