[영상]Seven minutes of fear broke through… “Hello Global Village” Hwaseong-seo authentication shot

On the 18th (local time), the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) cheered and applauded at the same time when the flight controller shouted that the Mars exploration rover’Perserverance’ had landed safely. After entering the atmosphere of Mars, which is said to be the most difficult, it was in the midst of watching the last hump until landing, the so-called ‘7 minutes of horror’.

Afterwards, the first greeting, “Hello, World” appeared on the official Twitter account of Perseverance. Mars’ arrival’certification shot’ has also been posted. He said, “It’s my first picture of my eternal haven.”

After leaving Earth on July 30 last year, Perseverance flew 471 million km for 7 months and arrived at Jezero Crater, the scheduled landing site. The exploration project to find traces of ancient life that may exist on Mars and explore the possibility of humanity living on Mars has begun in earnest.

The landing on Mars on this day was the most important milestone of the’Daejangjeong’. Mars has a sparse atmosphere, so you need to slow down without error when landing to land safely on the surface. It is an ultra-difficulty task that lowers the speed of 19,000 km/h to 0 in 7 minutes. For this, it is necessary to endure high temperatures of up to 1300 degrees after entering the atmosphere, and after passing through it, the parachute must be accurately opened at a height of 11 km from the surface. Afterwards, the landing ship separated from the parachute operates the reverse rocket. To succeed, the lander should slowly lower the rover to the ground at 2.7 km/h using a crane while floating in the air.

Moreover, all of this had to be handled by the Perseverance Hall, not the Earth’s control station. This is because it takes 11 minutes to transfer information from Mars to Earth, making real-time control difficult.

To date, only the United States has successfully landed on the surface of Mars. Already in 2012, a rover arriving via Curiosity is exploring the surface of Mars. China is the first to try to land on Mars in May.

As an example of the arrival of Perservance, the crater is believed to be an ancient delta formed by river flows billions of years ago. Perseverance finds traces of ancient life here for the next two years. With a weight of 1 ton, a length of 3 m, and a six-wheel drive, it is the largest and most sophisticated rover NASA has ever sent to Mars. It can move up to 198m on average per day (based on Mars) and can use a robotic arm that is 2m long. It is also equipped with a drill using nuclear fuel and can explore up to 100m underground.

It explores the surface, topography, and atmosphere, and collects soil and rock samples to bring to Earth. In particular, it converts carbon dioxide-filled Martian air into fuel for returning to Earth, and produces oxygen in case an astronaut arrives on Mars later. The mission to bring Martian soil and other samples to Earth by 2031 must also be completed.

The mission of the 1.8kg small helicopter drone’Ingenuity’, which arrived on Mars with the personal service, is also important. Ingenuity makes its first powered flight on Mars, where the air is thin. MiMi Aung, the head of the Mars flight project over the past six years, compared it to “a very similar moment to the Wright brothers’ first flight.” Taking off from the surface of Mars is said to be equivalent to flying at an altitude of 100,000 ft above Earth (twice the flight altitude of a jet plane).

If Ingenuity’s flight is successful, a new horizon will be opened for the exploration of Mars. This is because simultaneous exploration of the surface and atmosphere is possible.

This flight to Mars is an extension of NASA’s’Mars Exploration Program’ (MEP), which has been promoted since 1993. As of the announcement in 2012, the amount of funds to be put into the Personality Project amounted to $2.5 billion (approximately 2.7 trillion won).

The United States began sending probes to Mars in 1960, when competition for space exploration with the Soviet Union was in full swing. Initially, it was not easy to enter orbit, but the success rate of orbiting increased from the 1990s, and in 1997 the first rover sojourner was landed.

NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. The movie’Martian’ is becoming a reality. In 2004, after former U.S. President George W. Bush announced that he would pursue a manned exploration program on Mars by 2020, NASA announced a specific strategy for 2007.

When asked,’Why Mars?’, NASA explained, “Mars is the closest planet to the solar system, and because we can explore questions about the origins of mankind and the world that could not be solved on Earth, and the possibility of human migration.

Reporter Jeong Eun-hye [email protected]