[서울신문] NASA’s’Personality’ on the surface of Mars at 5:55, live on YouTube from 4 o’clock

NASA’s image probe’Perseverance’, which left to search for traces of life on Mars, is scheduled to land on the surface of Mars at 5:55 am (KST) on the 19th. . Since 4:15 am, it has been broadcasting the landing process of Perseverance live through YouTube channels. The BBC also started broadcasting live text messages. The National Science Museum of Gwacheon will be broadcasting commentary on the landing of the faculty from 8 pm on this day.

NASA’s fifth Mars exploration rover, Perseverance, who left Earth on July 30 last year and flew 470 million km, will challenge the’Seven Minutes of Devil’ after a seven-month journey. The BBC reported that’the time of truth is open’. It takes 7 minutes from entering the atmosphere to landing on the surface, and it is the most difficult time in the landing process, as it has to break through the hot Mars atmospheric resistance of 1600 degrees while communication is lost. The Perservance, a 6-wheeled robot vehicle weighing 1 ton, enters the atmosphere of Mars at a speed of about 20,000 km/h, 6 times faster than a bullet, and lands in the’Jezero Crater’, which is believed to be an ancient delta. It is the most likely place to find traces of microbes on Mars.

It enters the atmosphere of Mars at 5:48 a.m., opens a parachute 4 minutes later, turns off the power 2 minutes later, and after 1 minute, the wheels settle on the surface.

Unlike the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mars probe Amal and China’s Tianyuan 1, which arrived in orbit a week ago, they landed on the surface of Mars immediately after arriving at Mars orbit. Perseverance collects geologic and climate information on Mars. NASA expects to be able to determine how Mars, which resembled Earth under various conditions, such as the presence of liquid water, became different from Earth. The Perseverance also performs the mission of “returning samples to Mars,” collecting soil and rock samples and sending them to Earth. If the plan goes on as planned, samples of Mars soil will arrive on Earth in 2031.

A 1.8 kg robotic helicopter,’ingenuity’, is also included in the Perseverance. Unlike the existing rover developed as a vehicle, it is expected to be able to overcome the limitations of the previous probe, which had limitations in observing difficult terrain such as cliffs by moving in a flying method.

So far, only eight of the 14 attempts to land on the planet’s surface have been successful. Of course, it was all Americans. NASA failed only once in 1999. If you’re lucky, you may be able to see the first picture of the crater with Jezera a few minutes later.

The name Jesero comes from a village in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which means lake in Slavic. It is a 500m deep crater, and traces of enormous water inflow into the western wall remain.

NASA operates alone for one year, and later operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) for nine years or so. In 2026, a second rover is sent to bring the rock collected in 2031 to Earth.

Byung-sun Lim, Secretary General, Peace Research Institute [email protected]