NASA Readies Perseverance Mars Rover’s Earthly Twin – Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Did you know NASA’s next Mars rover has a nearly the same sibling on Earth for attempting out? Even greater, it’s about to roll for the principle time by a replica Martian landscape.

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As NASA’s Mars
rover Perseverance hurtles by field against the Crimson Planet, the
six-wheeler’s twin is ready to roll here on Earth.

A paunchy-scale
engineering model of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover – outfitted with wheels,
cameras, and extremely effective laptop techniques to wait on it power autonomously – has factual moved
into its garage dwelling at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern
California. This rover model handed its first riding test in a fairly tame
warehouselike meeting room at JPL on Sept. 1. Engineers ask to salvage it out next
week into the Mars Yard, the place a field of red grime studded with rocks and other
barriers simulates the Crimson Planet’s floor.

A paunchy-scale engineering model of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover now resides in a garage going by the Mars Yard at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Credit ranking: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Perseverance’s
mobility group can’t wait to in a roundabout blueprint power our test rover outside,” stated
Anais Zarifian, the mobility test bed engineer at JPL. “That is the verifyrobotic that comes closest to simulating the explicit mission operations
Perseverance will skills on Mars – with wheels, eyes, and brains all
together – so this rover is going to be especially fun to work with.”

Wait, Why
Does Perseverance Desire a Twin?

Perseverance
is never flying to Mars with a mechanic. To steer sure of as many unexpected points as
conceivable after the rover lands on Feb. 18, 2021, the group wants this
Earth-sure automobile scheme test bed (VSTB) rover to gauge how hardware and
utility will cancel sooner than they transmit commands as much as Perseverance on Mars.
This rover model shall be namely helpful for finishing a paunchy draw of
utility assessments so the group can send up patches whereas Perseverance is en directionto Mars or after it has landed.

Engineers test power the Earth-sure twin of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover for the principle time in a warehouselike meeting room at the company’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Credit ranking: NASA/JPL-Caltech

› Plump image and caption

And factual likePerseverance has a becoming title – one which captures the laborious work of havingthe rover on its ability to Mars amid a virulent illness – its twin has a title, too: OPTIMISM.
While OPTIMISM is an acronym for Operational Perseverance Twin for Integration
of Mechanisms and Instruments Sent to Mars, the title shall be a nod to the
mantra of the group that spent two years planning and assembling it.

“The Mars 2020 Perseverance verifybed group’s motto is ‘No optimism allowed,'”
stated Matt Stumbo, the lead for the VSTB rover on the test bed group. “So
we named the test rover OPTIMISM to remind us of the work we comprise now got to attain to
entirely test the scheme. Our job is to assemble considerations, no longer factual hope
actions will work. As we work by the points with OPTIMISM,
we attain self assurance in Perseverance’s capabilities and self assurance in our talentto characteristic on Mars.”

PracticallyEqual

OPTIMISM is
nearly the same to Perseverance: It is the the same dimension, has the the same mobility
scheme and high riding bound (0.094 mph, or 0.15 kph), and facets the identicaldistinctive “head,” is named the faraway sensing mast. After a momentfragment of constructing at the starting of the brand new twelve months, this would comprise the paunchy suite
of science devices, cameras, and laptop “brains” Perseverance has,
plus its queer scheme for gathering rock and
soil samples.

But since
OPTIMISM lives at JPL, it also facets some Earthly differences. For one
ingredient, whereas Perseverance gets its energy from a multi-mission radioisotope
thermoelectric generator
(a assemble of nuclear battery that has reliably powered field missions since the
1960s), OPTIMISM facets an umbilical cord that can even be plugged in for electricalpower. That cord also presents an ethernet connection, allowing the mission groupto send commands to and receive engineering files abet from OPTIMISM without
inserting within the radios Perseverance makes use of for verbal change. And whereas Perseverance
comes with a heating scheme to place it warm within the frigid atmosphere of Mars, OPTIMISM
depends on a cooling scheme for operating in hot Southern California summers.

Technicians scamper an engineering model of the Perseverance Mars rover into to its new dwelling within the Mars Yard, phase of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Credit ranking: NASA/JPL-Caltech

› Plump image and caption

Welcome to
the Family

OPTIMISM is neverJPL’s handiest VSTB rover. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, which has been exploring
the Crimson Planet because it landed in 2012, has a twin named MAGGIE (Mars Computerized Enormous Gizmo for Integrated Engineering).
MAGGIE has been serving to the Curiosity group namely with suggestions for
riding across anxious terrain and drilling rocks.

OPTIMISM and
MAGGIE will live facet-by-facet within the Mars Yard, giving JPL engineers a two-cargarage for the principle time.

“Missions
that are operating require high-constancy replicas of their techniques for attempting out,”
Stumbo stated. “The Curiosity mission has discovered lessons from MAGGIE that
were inconceivable to learn some other ability. Now that we comprise now got OPTIMISM, the
Perseverance mission is effectively geared as much as learn what they wish to be triumphant on
Mars.”

The
Perseverance rover’s astrobiology mission will search forsigns of old microbial life. This can also symbolize the planet’s local weatherand geology, pave the ability for human exploration of the Crimson Planet, and be the
first planetary mission to amass and cache Martian rock and regolith (brokenrock and mud). Subsequent missions, at this time below consideration by NASA in
cooperation with the European Apartment Company, would send spacecraft to Mars to
catch these cached samples from the ground and return them to Earth for
in-depth diagnosis.

The
Mars 2020 mission is phase of a greater program that contains missions to the
Moon as a ability to put together for human exploration of the Crimson Planet. Charged with
returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will attach a sustained human
presence on and around the Moon by 2028 by NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans.

JPL, which is managedfor NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, constructed and manages operations of
the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.

Be taught extra concerning theMars 2020 mission at:

https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance

Recordsdata Media Contact

Jia-Rui Cook / D.C. Agle


Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.


818-354-0724 / 818-393-9011


jccook@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Alana Johnson / Gray Hautaluoma


NASA Headquarters, Washington


202-358-1501 / 202-358-0668


alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov / grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov

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