The countdown is running.
The Mars rover “Perseverance” is to land on the red planet together with the ultra-light helicopter “Ingenuity”.
Nervousness is growing in the US space agency Nasa.
Washington - The landing of "Perseverance" is planned for Thursday (February 17) around 9:55 pm CET.
According to NASA scientist Ken Farley, the landing site is "spectacular".
The Jezero crater with a diameter of 45 kilometers is located in the northern hemisphere of Mars.
It has been repeatedly considered as a landing site for previous Mars missions, but discarded as too difficult.
Mars rover “Perseverance” about to land: an ambitious mission on the red planet
If the difficult landing maneuver succeeds, it is the start of an ambitious mission - a multi-year search for traces of past life on Mars.
The seven minutes of landing are crucial.
The spacecraft has to brake sharply so that the rover can then be set down safely on Mars using a parachute, among other things.
Nasa likes to refer to the seven minutes as the "seven minutes of terror".
Due to the signal travel time of around eleven minutes from Mars to Earth, the confirmation of the landing will arrive at NASA's control center in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California) at 9:55 p.m. at the earliest, according to the German Aerospace Center (DLR) .
After landing, "Perseverance" should quickly send first photos of the crater surface and later video recordings.
Mars rover “Perseverance”: Largest vehicle that was ever brought to Mars
Due to the corona pandemic, fewer people will be sitting in the control room of the “Mars 2020” mission than usual.
"But when we have the confirmation of the landing, I don't think Covid can stop us from jumping up and down and raising our fists," says Mars 2020 deputy project manager Matt Wallace.
The Mars rover "Perseverance" (in German: "Endurance") is the largest vehicle that has ever been brought to Mars.
It weighs a ton, has a robotic arm around two meters long, 19 cameras and two microphones.
The rover, which cost around $ 2.5 billion, had been designed and built for around eight years.
For the first time a small helicopter is on board and for the first time in the history of space travel, samples are to be brought back to Earth from Mars in a mission developed jointly with the European space agency Esa.
The rover reaches a speed of 152 meters per hour, making it faster than any of its predecessors on Mars.
If “Perseverance” lands intact, it would only be the fifth Mars rover that has successfully mastered the long journey from Earth.
All were built by the USA, the last one so far - "Curiosity" - is still in use.
In 1997 the "Sojourner" landed, which only communicated with the earth for around three months.
In 2004 the twin rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" followed.
Communication to "Spirit" was lost in 2007 in a huge dust storm, "Opportunity" succumbed to the same fate in 2018.
In 2012 “Curiosity” landed.
The robot became a crowd favorite.
His team provides scientists and fans with news and photos via social networks.
In 2018, the stationary NASA lander “InSight” made it to Mars, and several probes orbit the red planet.
Mars rover “Perseverance” has ultra-light helicopter “Ingenuity” on board
As part of the “Mars 2020” mission, the US space agency NASA plans to bring its Mars rover “Perseverance” together with the ultra-light helicopter “Ingenuity” to the red planet on Thursday.
There “Ingenuity” is supposed to fly through the Martian atmosphere.
This is a particular challenge because the Martian atmosphere is only one percent the density of the Earth's atmosphere.
"Ingenuity" is actually more like a drone.
Nasa engineers had to build the mini helicopter as light as possible so that it could take off in the extremely thin Martian atmosphere.
It weighs just 1.8 kilograms and consists of four feet, a missile and two propellers.
The propellers rotate 2400 times per minute, about five times faster than a normal helicopter.
"Ingenuity" is equipped with four solar panels to recharge its batteries.
A large part of the energy is required to warm up the aircraft again after night temperatures of minus 90 degrees.
During its flights, “Ingenuity” can take photos and videos of Mars.
On the journey to the Red Planet, the helicopter was transported in the belly of the Mars rover “Perseverance”.
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Mars helicopter "Ingenuity" fly through the Martian atmosphere.
© Patrick T. Fallon / afp
“Ingenuity”: 90-second flights on Mars
"Ingenuity" is expected to complete up to five flights over the surface of Mars.
The aircraft can ascend up to five meters and fly up to 300 meters.
In the first test, however, a significantly shorter distance should be covered.
Each flight can take up to a minute and a half.
NASA emphasizes that this is not a little "compared to the twelve seconds" that the first motorized flight on earth took.
Since the transmission of data from Mars to Earth takes around 20 minutes, "Ingenuity" is not controlled remotely, but flies independently.
NASA only issues basic commands, and "Ingenuity" uses a series of sensors to orient itself.
The results of the flights will only be available some time later.
Nasa speaks of a demonstration mission in "Ingenuity".
It has no scientific goal other than to show that flying is possible on Mars.
In addition, NASA wants to collect data from an aircraft on another planet with the project.
"Mars 2020" mission: Landing on Mars in the livestream
The landing on the Red Planet accompanies the Planetarium Berlin Foundation and the Society of German-speaking Planetariums in a YouTube live stream.
From 9:50 p.m., experts provided information about Mars and previous projects and explained the current US mission.
A landing schedule can also be found on the DLR website.
(ml / dpa / afp)