NASA to find life in universe will land on Mars in Feb 18 2021
The curiosity to find proof of
life on Mars will once again take NASA’s new rover to the red planet on
February 18, 2021. The landing of the Mars Rover — often termed as “seven
minutes of terror” — will truly define the success or the failure of the mission.
Perseverance,
as the new rover is called, has been named by a middle-school child who won
NASA’s ‘Name the Rover’ essay contest. It will land on Mars to seek signs of
ancient microbial life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock
and soil) and bring them back to Earth.
The rover
was launched on July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
NASA has released a small animated video of the rover landing on Mars.
During
those crucial seven minutes, the rover will enter the planet’s atmosphere,
descend, and land. It will make several maneuvers directed by the automated
computer on board before making a soft landing in the 28 miles wide (45
kilometers wide) Jezero Crate on the north of the Martian equator.
When the
rover plunges through the thin Martian atmosphere at a speed of over 12,000 mph
(about 20,000 kph), its heat shield will have to endure temperatures as high as
2,100C (3,800F). A parachute and powered descent slow the rover down to about 2
mph (three-fourths of a meter per second). A large sky crane then lowers the
rover on three bridle cords to land softly on six wheels.
The whole
process of entry, descent, and landing is about seven minutes long. The planned
operational life for the Perseverance rover is one Martian year on the surface.
One Martian year is 687 Earth days or 669 sols ( a sol is a Martian day, which
is 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35.244 seconds ).
The rover’s
astrobiology mission will search for signs of ancient microbial life,
characterize the planet’s climate and geology and collect samples for a future
return to Earth. Perseverance will also gather knowledge about, and demonstrate
the viability of, technologies that address the challenges of future human
expeditions to Mars.
Interestingly,
it takes about 10.5 minutes for the radio signal to travel from Mars to the
Earth, which is longer than the time for the rover to make a landing starting
from when it enters the planet’s atmosphere. This means that by the time the
rover completes the landing process successfully or not, the only signal
reaching the earth would be that it has entered the atmosphere of Mars.
Perseverance
will be the fifth rover NASA has sent to Mars. Each of these rovers has carried
cameras or other instruments to study the Martian surface. As opposed to
stationary landers, like InSight or Phoenix, rovers can drive into craters, up
slopes, and along sand dunes, allowing scientists and engineers to explore the
planet. All of NASA’s Mars rovers have been built at the agency’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
About $2.4
billion has been invested to build and launch the Mars 2020 Perseverance
mission. The estimated cost to land and operate the rover during its prime
mission is approximately $300 million.
3D Printed
Robotic Submarines Could Give A Boost To US Navy’s Underwater Might
A US start-up has created a low-cost, 3D printed autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), paving the way for the development of robotic submarines for the US Navy in the days to come. While a traditional submarine takes years to build, these AUVs can be made within a few days.
Boston-based
Dive Technologies has developed the crewless submarine called ‘Dive-LD’ with
the help of large-format 3D printers.
An AUV is a
robot that is able to travel underwater without any supervision from operators,
much like the Curiosity Rover used by NASA on Mars.
Unlike the
remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that are tethered to a service vessel, the
AUVs bear no physical connection to their operators. They are instead
programmed or controlled by their operators, who while being present at the
shore on a vessel can communicate exactly what their mission is.
The AUVs carry different equipment, including cameras, sonar, and depth sensors to conduct sampling and surveying during underwater missions.
However,
unlike an ROV, which transmits videos back to the control room or the vessel,
the AUV works differently. It stores all the data including images, videos, and
other sensor data, in the in-built computers till the time the AUV can be
recovered at the end of a dive.
The AUV is
also called unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) or underwater glider. AUVs can vary
in size, from a few thousand pounds to several thousand pounds. They can either
glide from the sea surface all the way down to the ocean depths and back, or
they can hover and move in a fashion similar to helicopters in the air.
Dive
Technologies claims it can make large AUVs better, faster and cheaper using 3D
printing technology, a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a
digital model, Popular Mechanics reported.
The 3D
printing of an object is achieved using additive processes — by
laying down successive layers of material.
Pentagon has already shown its interest in the new approach after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) handed out two contracts to the start-up for the project. While in the recent past, companies have used 3D printing to produce products like self-driving cars, and easy-to-assemble shelters for military use, the development of autonomous submarines by that use is new.
However,
Dive Technologies has made sure that the process goes on smoothly, by creating
an ‘AUV Kit’ that would ensure all the necessary pieces from various suppliers
is easily assembled to convert into a finished product.
The AUV kit
comprises propulsion, power distribution, energy, communications, navigation,
and computing, which are all integral parts of the autonomous submarine.
The
manufacturing of the submarine created by Dive Technologies is very different
from that of a normal submarine. In a traditional submarine, the process begins
with the pressure vessel which is an inner airtight hull strong enough to
withstand the crushing weight of water at depth.
Curved
steel plates measuring at least two inches thick are held in place with
scaffolding and are manually welded together before being strengthened with
welded ribs.
A traditional submarine
However,
according to Bill Lebo, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Dive Technologies,
the company had to do things differently with their AUVs. “We had to completely
rethink manufacturing,” said Lebo.
A major
factor that distinguishes these AUVs from the usual submarines is that the
Dive-LD is crewless, which in turn is their biggest strength.
Without
sailors and their needs for oxygen, the AUVs can be free-flooded, which means
that instead of water being kept outside an airtight hull, the water can
instead enter the vehicle’s body in order to equalize pressure, according
to Popular Mechanics.
The Dive-LD
submarine could be a prototype for bigger and much more flexible AUVs in the
future that may be used in military, commercial, and scientific operations.
According
to Sam Russo, Chief Operating Officer of Dive Technologies, large AUVs will
change everything. “They bring an enormous payload capability and energy
capacity that allows the vehicles to operate on their own in the ocean for days
on end,” he said.
