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From the second the mission started in 2013, the ladies and men engaged on what would grow to be NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover knew they’d encounter sudden challenges on their solution to Mars. In spite of everything, no NASA mission to the surface of the Red Planet has finished in any other case. However with its launch interval opening on July 17, the crew, like a lot of the remainder of the world, is pushing ahead with its mission-critical work whereas placing the well being and security of their colleagues and group first.
The mission has not paused as a result of Mars received’t, both. Owing to planetary alignment, the one time to launch a big payload to Earth’s second closest planetary neighbor happens simply three weeks out of each 26 months. If Perseverance doesn’t make it off the launch pad earlier than the top of this launch alternative, the venture must wait till September 2022 to attempt once more. Perseverance is the one NASA mission within the subsequent a number of months with such an orbital constraint.
The ladies and men of Perseverance will inform you that their efforts pale compared to the inspiring work being carried out by our frontline healthcare staff and first responders preventing COVID-19 throughout the globe. Like all of us, they fear about their households and communities.
Nevertheless, by staying centered on the problem at hand, preparation for the launch of Perseverance — humanity’s first step in returning samples from one other planet — stays on monitor. Getting so far has required the crew to be nimble, adhere to crucial well being precautions, and collect help throughout the company.
Persevering at Dwelling
Primarily based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the venture has transitioned 90% of the crew to telework. On this new mode, the crew has continued to mature its software program, mission planning and operations procedures, and methods engineering readiness for launch. Like many People, they’re persevering from dwelling.
The crew created a group web page to share ideas on greatest practices and supply ethical help to one another. They’ve modified their assembly cadence, making time for “hallway conversations.” They’re additionally making time for “digital walk-ins” and one-on-one digital exchanges with venture administration.
However for some important spacecraft duties, a bodily presence in a laboratory setting is required. Simply final week at JPL, mission-essential employees efficiently accomplished the meeting and cleansing of the pattern tubes that can maintain Martian sediment and rock for return to Earth on a future mission. Different mission-essential personnel will proceed to go to the Lab for the foreseeable future, operating assessments on important rover methods and laptop applications that should be accomplished earlier than launch.
The Lab instituted a set of [email protected] procedures — primarily based on the steerage of occupational security medical personnel — to make sure these working on-Lab are social distancing, carrying protecting tools, and have prepared entry at hand sanitizer and different cleansing provides. Limiting the variety of personnel on-Lab to the minimal important set has allowed the Mars 2020 Perseverance crew to proceed to give attention to their work whereas the Lab’s help community focuses on their security.
“NASA has decided that Perseverance is the science program that has the company’s highest precedence and the venture has responded beautifully to this problem,” mentioned Michael Watkins, director of JPL. “Once we realized the pandemic would have an effect on Lab entry, we had been fast to outline their chief goal as being office security for crew members and their households, after which constructed a plan round that offering the clearest path to the launch pad.”
Persevering at Cape Canaveral
One other 80 mission-critical crew members are performing ultimate processing and checkout of the spacecraft elements at Kennedy House Heart in central Florida. Adhering to strict cleanliness pointers and dealing in private protecting tools is second nature to this crew, since they adhere to strict cleanliness protocols with all spacecraft going to Mars.
More difficult was determining how key personnel may journey from Southern California to Florida and again whereas minimizing their threat of publicity to coronavirus.
“These are individuals with a really particular skillset — they know tips on how to put all of the items collectively,” mentioned JPL’s Matt Wallace, deputy venture supervisor for Perseverance. “Whereas this crew has finished a outstanding job in a really tough time for our nation and the world, we might not have been in a position to proceed by way of this international emergency with out the help of colleagues throughout the company.”
An ideal instance of dedication to the company mission is the important work of personnel within the Flight Operations Workplace at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Analysis Heart in Edwards, California. The company permitted use of its C-20 plane at Armstrong for transport of mission-critical JPL employees from California.
“Getting the Perseverance crew and kit safely the place they should go is simply the most recent in Armstrong’s affiliation with Mars exploration,” mentioned Wayne Ringelberg, chief analysis pilot from NASA Armstrong. “We hosted Mars Exploration Rover evaluations at Roger’s Lake in 2003, and in 2011 we examined the descent radar used on Curiosity’s touchdown in 2012 in addition to Perseverance’s subsequent 12 months. ”
Journeys would start at dawn, with Armstrong’s flight surgeon performing well being screenings and protecting tools fittings. By sunset in Southern California, the plane crew would return dwelling with crew members whose work on the Cape was full.
“We seek advice from it as One NASA,” mentioned Thomas Zurbuchen, affiliate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate. “It means any a part of the company and its 19 services will assist and are available collectively to push again the bounds of know-how and enhance our information of the universe. The most effective demonstrations of One NASA I’ve seen shortly is taking part in out proper now with our Perseverance rover. Collectively we’re persevering.”
Along with NASA, personnel from throughout the U.S. aerospace business and the Division of Power have carried out important actions in making ready Perseverance for launch.
Preflight by Smartphone
Whereas the direct flights have been indispensable, some members haven’t been in a position to take them, regardless of being important to inspections.
“Similar to a pilot does a preflight inspection earlier than going up, we have now a ‘walkdown’ of the spacecraft, the place subject material consultants who’re most intimate with the workings of a specific spacecraft system get one final probability to identify something that is perhaps mistaken or could possibly be made higher,” defined Wallace. “We’d not launch with out the flexibility to finish these inspections.”
So the venture’s imaging scientist, Justin Maki, introduced the spacecraft to them. Maki is an professional at acquiring pristine HD-quality photos from the floor of Mars. Working with the JPL Communications and Public Engagement groups, who’re well-versed with offering terrestrial footage, Maki and the clear room crew in Florida arrange a plan for the primary reside video walkdown of a Mars rover.
On March 31 and April 1, six Perseverance senior engineers watched from their dwelling workplaces in Southern California as a technician within the rover’s clear room at Kennedy maneuvered his smartphone into each accessible nook and cranny of the rover. The walkdown’s crystal-clear video feed gave them the arrogance that their a part of Perseverance was able to go.
The finished spacecraft (rover, descent stage, aeroshell and cruise stage) is scheduled to be mated with its Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Drive Station’s House Launch Complicated 41 in June.
“Whereas we nonetheless have our sights set on Mars, our toes are firmly planted right here on Earth,” mentioned NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “We see the pressure this pandemic is putting on our households, our healthcare staff and our livelihoods. We hope that once we depart Earth this summer time, and when the Perseverance rover lands on Mars subsequent February, our collective efforts to persevere by way of these difficult occasions will encourage the nation.”
The Perseverance rover is a robotic scientist weighing about 2,260 kilos (1,025 kilograms). The rover’s astrobiology mission will seek for indicators of previous microbial life. It can characterize the planet’s local weather and geology, acquire samples for future return to Earth, and pave the best way for human exploration of the Pink Planet. It doesn’t matter what day Perseverance launches throughout its July 17-Aug. 5 launch interval, it is going to land at Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is a component of a bigger program that features missions to the Moon as a solution to put together for human exploration of the Pink Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will set up a sustained human presence on and across the Moon by 2028 by way of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans.
