NASA Launches Mars 2020 Mission to Red Planet
An United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V roared off a launch pad in Florida on Thursday, sending the Mars Perseverance rover to a landing on the Red Planet next February.
Atlas V lifted off on schedule at 7:50 EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California received a signal from the spacecraft about 1 hour 25 minutes after launch.
Perseverance will explore Jezero crater and collect samples for later retrieval and return to Earth by a joint U.S.-European mission planned for later this decade.
Perseverance carries a small helicopter, Ingenuity, that will become the first vehicle to fly on another world. The rover also includes an experiment that will produce oxygen from carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere.
It was the third and final mission to Mars sent during this launch window. China launched an orbiter, lander and rover and the United Arab Emirates launched an orbiter earlier in July.
16 responses to “NASA Launches Mars 2020 Mission to Red Planet”
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The flagship of the 2020 Mars flotilla has weighed anchor and cleared the breakwater.
What is interesting is that this will likely be the last flight of a small launch to Mars. After this, it will very likely be something of 100+ tonnes.
That will depend how rapid the Boca Chica shipyard can commissioned Mars rated hardware. But everyone else is still struck with the 1 tonne maximum payload limit with the current Martian entry, descend and landing options. So there will be more one tonne payload class Martian landers.
First off, there is FH which is rated for Mars. That is what? 13-16 tonnes?
But, do you really doubt that SX will have a production system by next year?
Doesn’t matter what non-Starship launcher it is. The Entry, Descend & Landing options for them is limited to about 1 tonne of payload to the surface of Mars.
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No. But doubt a Starship will planted on Mars before the Rosalind Franklin rover (ExoMars 2022).
If SpaceX has one or more Cargo Starships Mars-ready in 2022, they might land a bit before, a bit after or at about the same time as the Roz. As the plan is for Starships to use faster-than Hohmann trajectories, a notional 2022 Starship – or flotilla – would likely arrive first. But exact precedence will not be a matter of great importance.
Uhhhhh…. No. Not quite.
really? What else is going there?
ExoMars for one in 2022. The US community is also preparing to propose other Mars missions for launch on EELV boosters. I know of nobody who can script up a real flight to a real planet who are planning on Starship being available.
When Starship is finally ready to go to the Moon, it will probably be cheaper and easier for the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona to simply send a graduate student to the Moon instead of sending a probe. But Starship has be working and working very well in at least three different classes of vehicle before that happens. Call it sometime in the 2030’s if all goes well.
Forgot about ExoMars.
However, musk goal is to send multiple missions to Mars in 2024. Do you think that in 4 years, he will not fly it?
You asked what REAL flights are going to Mars next. ExoMars is a real program.
Yes, in 2024 Space X may boost flights to Mars on a Falcon, but that’s it.
Andrew T. is a hard case. He won’t come around until Elon and his crew do the necessary show and tell.
Once SpaceX builds it, they will come. Falcon Heavy first flew just two and a half years ago and there are already deep space missions in the works that will use it. Starship will be the same only squared and cubed.
If U of A waits until the 2030s to send its notional grad student Moonward, he or she should be able to easily rent an exo-suit, instrumentation package and hopper and/or rover services to get to any selected lunar exploratory site from the SpaceX-Tesla, Dynetics or Blue Origin offices in Armstrong City or Aldrinopolis.
It won’t be the last, but I take your point. Other players will continue to send various types of vehicles to Mars on smaller rockets for awhile yet. In the case of Russia and China – and perhaps India – for quite awhile yet.
After Cargo Starship makes its first Mars run – perhaps as soon as 2022 – the number of such third-party vehicles is likely to increase sharply, but they will travel as paid freight on Starships.
That is pretty much the case. The cost of launching on these small rockets to send anything to mars or moon will be too high. Starship will likely be able to send to the moon for 1/5-10k of the price, and mars would be 1/500-1000 of others price. With massive price differences, I can not any small launches, except China for China. Far better to spend the money on probes, sats, even sending ppl, bases, etc.
And the only way that another builder will compete will be with SHLVs, not theae small expensive ones.
It would be much better if they stop launching endless number of rovers to Mars because if there could be life on Red Planet the first rover would definitely find it.