
NASA Just Launched Its New Perseverance Rover to Mars - n0pe_p0pe
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-watch-nasa-launch-its-new-perseverance-mars-rover/
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Robotbeat
Really excited about this one. It’s a sample cacher, so is the beginning of
the sample return effort. It also has an _in situ_ resource utilization
demonstration involving capturing CO2 from the Martian atmosphere and
splitting it into oxygen (and carbon monoxide fuel) using a solid oxide
electrolysis cell. That kind of tech is critical for human missions.

And, of course, the helicopter!

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shorts_theory
How will the probe return the Martian samples? Is there going to be a round-
trip mission to Mars in the future which will be able to take these samples
back with it?

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NikolaeVarius
No, leaving them in place for possible future mission

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shadowgovt
That's neat, but I can't help but wonder how it's more cost-effective than
having the possible future mission reach a scoop out once it gets there and
collect its own samples.

"Hi Mars Recon 1! I'm Mars Perseverance! I brought you some decades-old rocks
and dirt!"

"Uh, thanks Perseverance. I, uh, might get my own though." ;)

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jessriedel
I have yet to hear a good explanation for this. Rendezvous on the surface of
the planet sounds much more challenging than simply taking new samples, even
assuming you need significant equipment to ensure you're taking the most
interesting samples.

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Robotbeat
Perseverance will land using terrain-relative autonomous navigation,
demonstrating fairly precise landing.

There are multiple reasons to split the mission. Perhaps the main one is that
~1 ton is approximately the upper limit of existing Mars landing technology
which is enough for a powerful rover like Perseverance that can carry several
sample return canisters (and live long enough to find really good samples) OR
a rocket capable of returning the samples back (with just a small, basic
canister retriever rover). Yeah, you could just put a sampling arm on the
rocket lander, but that's a lot of wasted opportunity (heh).

Perseverance should have plenty of range, and the autonomous landing
navigation tech should have sufficient precision that surface rendezvous
should not be a major challenge.

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htk
And not a single picture of the Rover can be seen in the article.

For the curious:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseverance_(rover)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseverance_\(rover\))

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Steltek
Aside from the drone, it's a Curiosity rover with upgraded tires (and diff
instrument package). I think that is actually an incredibly exciting
statement, not boring: Nasa has such high confidence in the refinement of Mars
rovers that they're only making small changes now.

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iamthemalto
From what the guide at JPL said when I went on a tour there and got to see the
Perseverance rover in the cleanroom, was that they simply had enough spare
parts from building the Curiosity that it was easy/worth building this second
one.

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martythemaniak
It's awesome, but I'd also call it a reality check if you believe that the
future of space exploration is unmanned. Curiosity landed landed 8 years ago
and has covered the equivalent of a day's hike (23km) for a human. It's got to
stop and drill, take photos, etc, but it still probably represents only
several days worth of tasks for a human.

Perseverance has better instruments, but is the same platform and weight
because there's no rockets capable of putting anything larger on Mars. It's
also not going to be doing anything faster than Curiosity did. The rate of
improvement of these robots is really slow.

I'm really hoping the next generation of reusable/refillable rockets changes
things.

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dogma1138
While true, it's not a good argument, humans would require much more
equipment, the rover is limited by the amount of weight we can put on Mars, if
you use the same weight allowance that even modest manned missions to mars
would require on rovers you'll get a very different coverage.

Humans are important because they can think and be in the loop where it
matters most, but it's not that they'll be able to cover that much more
ground. We don't have the technology to allow for a human to trek 23km on mars
yet, even when we will I don't see NASA or anyone approving such a mission so
now you need a vehicle capable of transporting humans, providing emergency
shelter and life support, the longest single manned trip we've taken on a
celestial body was about 7km on lunar roving vehicles.

Yes those covered usually around 30KM in a single mission but not in a single
trip, all trips were well within visual range and well within recovery
distance if need be.

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dmurray
The longest manned lunar rover trip was more like 15km (7.5km out and back on
Apollo 17) and the limiting factor there was that the astronauts had to be
ready to walk back if it broke down. If the mission called for the astronauts
to walk 23km in a single trip on Mars, designing the technology for that would
not be a huge leap.

I agree the extra weight required for life support and a return journey would
be far greater than what the unmanned rovers need.

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x43b
I'm excited for Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter Scout!

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dogma1138
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:List_of_active_Martian_A...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:List_of_active_Martian_Air_Force_aircraft)

I couldn't resist.

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0xffff2
Why "air force" for a civilian research aircraft?

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yannikyeo
In terms of computing, anyone knows what’s the spec and what’s the software
stack like? Assembly machine codes?

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OnACoffeeBreak
Same as the Curiosity rover back in 2011:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750)

[https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/brains/](https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/brains/)

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t7s
If budget was not an issue is there a reason that we don't launch multiple
rovers during the mars window?

Would one rover team be able to manage multiple rovers?

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OnACoffeeBreak
Good question. I imagine that communication infrastructure would have to be
taken into consideration, but I don't know much of the details. The rover has
the following capabilities for comms, but I don't know what the limits are in
Mars orbit for relays:

\- UHF up to 2 Mbps

\- X-band High Gain 160/500 bits per second

\- X-band Low Gain about 10 bits per second

[https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communicatio...](https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communications/)

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JumpCrisscross
How do we communicate with the rovers when Earth and Mars are on opposite
sides of the Sun?

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ckozlowski
Sounds like it doesn't last all that long. They have a keep-alive program
running during, and then get back to work once the connection is restored:

[https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/video/mars-in-a-minute-
wh...](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/video/mars-in-a-minute-what-happens-
when-the-sun-blocks-our-signal/)

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billfruit
Does anyone know why the Chinese probe which seems a lighter payload needs a
heavy lift Long March 5 rocket, while Perseverance only requires a medium lift
rocket? Is it because of some different approaches in the orbit taken to Mars?

Also how does the UAE probe's approach/trajectory to Mars.

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pauldino
I believe the Chinese mission actually does have more mass overall - although
the rover is a lot smaller, they're also sending a large orbiter and a landing
platform to deliver the rover to the surface.

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shadowgovt
That's cool. If NASA and CNSA can work the details out, they can share comms;
it's always good to have more redundant comms solutions in orbit.

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pauldino
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you ask) NASA is very
restricted in what it can do with China, so probably not. But NASA does
utilize ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter in addition to their own Mars orbiters for
relay operations.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exclusion_policy_of_NA...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exclusion_policy_of_NASA)

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billfruit
I heard CNSA is also planning to use an ESA orbiter as backup comms relay,
besides using the ESA ground tracking stations as well.

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sidcool
The rovers are very advanced. And they are coming back!! That's a major plus.

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phreeza
Coming back?

