17 Feb 2021
Groundbreaking technologies aboard NASA's Mars 2020 mission have roots right here in Silicon Valley. Read on to learn more!
1. Testing a Parachute Made for Mars
The Mars 2020 spacecraft will be coming in hot when it enters the Martian atmosphere on Feb. 18, 2021. The enormous parachute that will help slow its descent was tested in June 2017 in the world’s largest wind tunnel, located in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex, or NFAC, at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The canopy of the parachute will open on Mars at a speed of about 940 miles per hour – but in a much thinner atmosphere than on Earth. For the pre-launch tests in the NFAC, low-speed inflation of the parachute was used to simulate the forces it will need to withstand during its entry into the Martian atmosphere. Made of nylon, Technora and Kevlar fibers, the parachute weighs 180 pounds, measures more than 165 feet in length and opens to an inflated diameter of nearly 51 feet. The NFAC, currently managed and operated by the U.S. Air Force, is the only facility in the world capable of testing the full-size parachute canopy.
2. Shielding the Spacecraft During Its Fiery Descent
The heat shield used to transport the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover through the atmosphere of the Red Planet upon arrival is seen undergoing testing at the Arc Jet Complex facilities at Ames. This heat shield is made with tiles of a material called the Phenolic-Impregnated Carbon Ablator, or PICA, which was invented and developed at Ames and has been used in spaceflight missions for decades. For this mission, the heat shield was built by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver. The heat shield is designed to withstand extreme temperatures while descending through the Martian atmosphere. While traveling at nearly 12,500 miles per hour, or 20,000 kilometers per hour, the surface of the spacecraft collides with the atoms and molecules of the gases in the Martian atmosphere, causing these extreme temperatures. Engineers estimate the spacecraft can withstand temperatures of more than 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1,300 degrees Celsius, with PICA to protect it while keeping the interior relatively cool, below about 485 degrees Fahrenheit, or 250 degrees Celsius. Using these thoroughly tested materials and designs, NASA strives to make even the most fiery of entries result in a safe landing.
3. Helping the First Mars Helicopter Fly
When NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter arrives on Mars its mission is to demonstrate the first powered controlled flight on another planet. Ingenuity was designed and developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The expertise of aeronautical engineers at Ames led JPL to partner with the center and NASA’s Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology project from the moment work on Ingenuity started. Ames engineers provided performance predictions, computational fluid dynamics analysis, and facility installation studies, as well as system identification, development, and validation. Ames also contributed to the system integration testing of a full-scale Mars helicopter prototype, two engineering development models, and the flight model, which is now attached to the belly of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. Ames continues to partner with JPL to consider future Mars rotorcraft designs.
4. Measuring the Extreme Environment During Landing
Landing on Mars is no easy task, and there's a lot to learn about the extreme conditions a spacecraft experiences on its way to the surface of the Red Planet. That's why engineers equipped NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft carrying the Perseverance rover with the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2, or MEDLI2, hardware. It's a suite of sensors on the aeroshell (white backshell and black heat shield structure) that will collect measurements of the pressure and heating environment around the spacecraft. The aeroshell protects the vehicle during cruise, as well as during its fiery descent into the Martian atmosphere. MEDLI2 includes various types of sensors – thermocouples, two kinds of heat flux sensors, and pressure transducers – as well as a data acquisition unit. Engineers at Ames designed and fabricated MEDLI2's thermocouple plugs and performed rigorous tests on the total heat flux sensors and radiometer for the backshell of the Mars 2020 spacecraft. These instruments, along with others developed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, will provide the first direct heat flux measurement on the backshell of an aeroshell for a NASA Mars mission and will help improve entry system designs for future robotic and crewed Mars missions.
The landing of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is scheduled for 12:55 p.m. PST on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. NASA will host virtual news briefings, live shows, and other activities the week of Feb. 15 to discuss events surrounding the landing of its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. Live landing commentary will begin at 11:15 a.m. on NASA Television, the agency’s website, the NASA app, and several other platforms.
NASA will also provide a live Spanish-language landing commentary show, "Juntos Perseveramos," on NASA en Español’s YouTube channel. Coverage begins at 11:30 a.m.