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Mars Ascendent

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Mars Ascendent ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021 2 SPECIAL REPORT China sTianwen-1 NASA s Perseverance UAE s Amal (Hope) fter hurtling hundreds of millions of Ò When the scientists take a look at a site Amiles through space since last summer, like Jezero Crater, they see the promise, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the right? said Al Chen, who s in charge of the brakes at Mars. entry, descent and landing team at NASA s The stakes and anxiety are sky high. Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Cali- The United Arab Emirates orbiter reach- fornia. When I look at Jezero, I see danger. es Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 There s danger everywhere. hours later by China s orbiter-rover combo. Steep cliffs, deep pits and fields of rocks NASA s rover, the cosmic caboose, will ar- could cripple or doom Perseverance, follow- rive on the scene a week later, on Feb. 18, ing its seven-minute atmospheric plunge. to collect rocks for return to Earth a key With an 11 1/2-minute communication lag step in determining whether life ever existed each way, the rover will be on its own, un- at Mars. able to rely on flight controllers. Amal and Both the UAE and China are newcomers at Tianwen-1 will also need to operate autono- Mars, where more than half of Earth s emis- mously while maneuvering into orbit. saries have failed. China’s first Mars mission, Until Perseverance, NASA sought out flat, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made boring terrain on which to land one gi- it past Earth s orbit. ant parking lot, Chen said. That s what Chi- Ò We are quite excited as engineers and na s Tianwen-1 rover will be shooting for in scientists, at the same time quite stressed and Mars Utopia Planitia. happy, worried, scared, said Omran Sharaf, NASA is upping its game thanks to new project manager for the UAE. navigation technology designed to guide the All three spacecraft rocketed away with- rover to a safe spot. The spacecraft also has a MARS ASCENDENT in days of one another last July, during an slew of cameras and microphones to capture Earth-to-Mars launch window that occurs the sights and sounds of descent and landing, only every two years. That s why their arriv- a Martian first. als are also close together. Faster than previous Mars vehicles but still Called Amal, or Hope in Arabic, the Gulf moving at a glacial pace, the six-wheeled Per- nation s spacecraft is seeking an especially severance will drive across Jezero, collecting high orbit 13,500 by 27,000 miles high core samples of the most enticing rocks and (22,000 kilometers by 44,000 kilometers) gravel. The rover will set the samples aside all the better to monitor the Martian weather. for retrieval by a fetch rover launching in China s duo called Tianwen-1, or 2026. Ò Quest for Heavenly Truth will remain Under an elaborate plan still being worked paired in orbit until May, when the rover sep- out by NASA and the European Space Agen- arates to descend to the dusty, ruddy surface. cy, the geologic treasure would arrive on If all goes well, it will be only the second Earth in the early 2030s. Scientists contend country to land successfully on the red planet. it s the only way to ascertain whether life The US rover Perseverance, by contrast, flourished on a wet, watery Mars 3 billion to will dive in straight away for a harrowing 4 billion years ago. sky-crane touchdown similar to the Curiosity NASA s science mission chief, Thomas rover s grand Martian entrance in 2012. The Zurbuchen, considers it one of the hardest odds are in NASA s favor: It s nailed eight of things ever done by humanity and certainly its nine attempted Mars landings. in space science. Despite their differences the 1-ton Per- The US is still the only country to success- severance is larger and more elaborate than fully land on Mars, beginning with the 1976 the Tianwen-1 rover both will prowl for Vikings. Two spacecraft are still active on the signs of ancient microscopic life. surface: Curiosity and InSight. Perseverance s $3 billion mission is the Smashed Russian and European space- first leg in a US-European effort to bring craft litter the Martian landscape, meanwhile, Mars samples to Earth in the next decade. along with NASA s failed Mars Polar Lander Ò To say we re pumped about it, well that from 1999. would be a huge understatement, said Lori Getting into orbit around Mars is less com- Glaze, NASA s planetary science director. plicated, but still no easy matter, with about Perseverance is aiming for an ancient river a dozen spacecraft falling short. Mars fly-bys delta that seems a logical spot for once har- were the rage in the 1960s and most failed; boring life. This landing zone in Jezero Cra- NASA’s Mariner 4 was the first to succeed ter is so treacherous that NASA nixed it for in 1965. NASA s Curiosity rover captured its highest-resolution panorama of the Martian surface between Nov 24 and Dec 1, 2019. (NASA) Curiosity, but so tantalizing that scientists are Six spacecraft currently are operating keen to get hold of its rocks. around Mars: three from the US, two from Continued on Page 3 editor’s choice.
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