In this video, Dr. Jim Daly of Astronomy For Change choreographs the arrival of Perseverance at Mars on Thursday, February 18th and reminds everyone to set their calendars as Astronomy For Change will be live-streaming the event beginning at 1:45 PM, EST.
Nine years ago this August, Curiosity rover landed at Aeolis Palus inside Gale crater on Mars. One week from today, Thursday February 18, Perseverance will execute the same 7-minute, autonomous entry, descent and landing without any input from mission control back on Earth as did Curiosity eight years ago.
7 minutes is the time it takes the vehicle, traveling at 20800 km/hr or almost 6 km/sec as it enters Mars’ upper atmosphere to when it is at rest on the surface, alive or dead. Unbeknownst to anyone, the vehicle will be alive or dead on the surface for 7 minutes and is thus regarded as the “7 Minutes of Terror”.
At its current distance from earth of 195 M/km, it takes a command, traveling at the speed of light, at the universal speed limit of 300,000 Km/sec, 11 minutes to reach the vehicle – we couldn’t change or correct anything even if we wanted to. The vehicle is flying under full autopilot and the choreography has to be perfect with no room for error.
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Credit to:
NASA: https://www.nasa.gov
JPL: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Mars: https://mars.nasa.gov/
Musical Score
Gustav Holst – Mars the Bringer of War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6I7Q7DCC1Q
The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst.
Royalty Free Classical Music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3RGPKtgtCdIJilxp-EXExw
Imagination is more important than knowledge
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