The Mars 2020 mission having NASA’s newly named rover — Perseverance — got an important escalation after the essential testing at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida finished.
Activities to calculate the mass qualities of the Cruise Stage vehicle were carried on the spin table inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. Successful testing also was carried on NASA’s Mars Helicopter, which will be linked to Perseverance.
The functional test (50 RPM spin) was shown on the stand in the airlock. This marked the last time the rotor blades will be operated until the rover touches the Martian surface.
The NASA Mars Helicopter will be the first aircraft to fly on a different planet. The twin-rotor, solar-powered helicopter will be enclosed after landing, placing once mission managers decide an allowable region to undergo test flights.
On March 5, 2020, NASA introduced Perseverance as the new name for the Mars 2020 rover. Alexander Mather, a seventh-grader from Virginia, gave the winning name for the rover with his entry in the agency’s Name the Rover essay contest.
Perseverance will reach the Red Planet on February 18, 2021. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket is focused for mid-July from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is managing the launch.
As big as a car with measurements exactly like the Curiosity rover, Perseverance was created under NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The initiative’s objective is to find signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet’s climate and geology, get samples for future return to Earth and pave the way for human exploration of Mars.
