The final preparations for the Mars 2020 mission are taking place at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Perseverance rover is scheduled to be launched in 13 weeks, and the team is struggling to make sure that all the details are according to plan. On the 8th of April, the team managed to complete one of the necessary tests on the spacecraft.
To assure a safe landing on the Red Planet, the researchers’ team is carefully analyzing the mass properties data, since they are crucial information for a safe trip to Mars. Therefore, the critical test started on the 6th of April, and the team lifted the rover into the atmosphere, rotating it around its axis.
The experiment allowed researchers to determine the center of gravity of the spacecraft, following its x-axis. To eliminate any friction that could be produced by the rover touching any surface, Perseverance was moved on a thin layer of nitrogen, allowing it to levitate to determine the mass distribution, as well as the imbalance.
About the Mars Perseverance Rover
The Perseverance rover weighs around 2.260 pounds. Its mission is to bring essential data regarding any signs of microbial life on the Red Planet, helping scientists to determine the characteristics of the climate distribution of the planet. In addition to this, the rover will collect a couple of samples that are meant to reach Earth’s atmosphere at its return on the ground.
The geological samples will be analyzed by the scientists using much more advanced technology to determine their characteristics. This would pave astronauts’ forthcoming journey on Mars.
The Perseverance rover is scheduled to leave Earth’s atmosphere on the 17th of July, and it will land on Mars on the 18th of February, on the Jezero Crater. Mars 2020 is only one mission of an assembly of investigations conducted by NASA, whose aim is to return human exploration into the outer space by the end of 2024.
