Seven Minutes of Terror: Nasa Released Animated Video of Perseverance Rover Soft Landing on Mars, Watch Video

Nasa Mars Mission 2020: Nasa has released an animated video showing how its one-ton perseverance rover will land on Mars on 18 February 2021. The rover will land on a crater called Jezero where it will hunt for the evidence of past life, explore the planet’s geology, and much more. The landing of Rover on Mars is often referred to as “seven minutes of terror”as the whole purpose of Perseverance Rover is depending on its safe landing on the Martian surface.

The vehicle holding perseverance rover was launched on July 30, 2020. It has already covered the distance of 229,656,950 miles out of 130.57 million kilometer (distance between Earth and Mars), and moment by moment it is heading towards Mars with the speed of 52,428 mph (speed relative to the sun). It has completed its 75% trip and a few months behind to land on the martian surface. 

Watch Video Here

How Will It Work?

The soft landing will start when the capsule holding Perseverance rover reaches 100km above Mars where it will encounter the first wisps of the atmosphere. At this point, the vehicle, in its protective capsule, will be traveling at 20,000km/h (12,000mph). In around 400 seconds, the descent system will reduce the vehicle’s velocity to less than 1m/s.

The HeatShield Will Play a Major Role

As the capsule dives deeper into the Martian air, it gets super-hot at more than 1,000C – but at the same time, the drag slows the fall dramatically. And by the time the supersonic parachute deploys from the backshell of the capsule, the velocity will already be reduced to 1,200km/h. The rover will ride with a 21.5m-wide parachute for over a minute.

At an altitude of 2km from the Martian surface, and while moving at 100m/s, the Perseverance rover and its “Skycrane” separate from the backshell and fall away. At the same time, eight rockets ignite on the cradle to bring the rover into a hovering position just above the surface. Henceforth , nylon cords will help the wheeled vehicle to slowly land on the surface.