NASA has delayed the launch of its Mars rover Perseverance again, this time to no earlier than July 30, due to rocket preparation delays.

The launch of NASA’s next Mars rover has been pushed back yet again.

The car-size Perseverance rover, the centerpiece of NASA’s life-hunting Mars 2020 mission, will lift off no earlier than July 30, eight days later than the previous target date, agency officials announced today (June 30).

“A liquid oxygen sensor line presented off-nominal data during the wet dress rehearsal, and additional time is needed for the team to inspect and evaluate,” NASA officials wrote in an update today, explaining the cause of the delay. 

Related: NASA’s Mars 2020 rover Perseverance in pictures

The launch team conducted the wet dress rehearsal, a comprehensive countdown practice session with Mars 2020’s United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 22.

Mars 2020’s original launch window extended from July 17 to Aug. 11. The “no earlier than” date has been pushed back three times — first to July 20 because of a faulty crane, then to July 22 to resolve a potential contamination issue with ground support lines, and now to July 30.

But there’s a nugget of good news in the latest update as well: Mars 2020 has a bit more time to get off the ground than originally thought.

“Flight analysis teams have expanded the mission launch opportunities to August 15 and are examining if the launch period may be extended further into August,” NASA officials wrote today.

Mars missions have restricted launch windows because Earth and the Red Planet align properly for interplanetary travel just once every 26 months. If the $2.7 billion Mars 2020 can’t get off the ground this summer, the mission will have to be put into storage until autumn 2022. That fate befell the European-Russian ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin, which encountered problems with its parachute system and other issues that could not be solved in time for a 2020 launch.

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is prepared to be encapsulated in its Atlas V rocket payload fairing at NASA’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 18, 2020. (Image credit: NASA/Christian Mangano)

Whenever it launches during the coming window, Perseverance will land inside Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The six-wheeled robot will hunt for signs of ancient life in the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero, which harbored a lake and river delta billions of years ago.

Perseverance will also collect and cache several dozen samples, which will be returned to Earth, perhaps as early as 2031, in a joint effort by NASA and the European Space Agency. The rover will also test out several new exploration technologies, including gear that generates oxygen from Mars’ thin, carbon dioxide-dominated atmosphere and a little helicopter named Ingenuity.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

Source link

The post NASA has delayed the launch of its Mars rover Perseverance again, this time to no earlier than July 30, due to rocket preparation delays. appeared first on Chop News.



from Chop News https://ift.tt/2BTZXm9

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where To Find Undetected Black Ops Cold War Hacks? | RVCJS

Image
Black Ops Cold War hacks are highly popular and there’s absolutely no question about it. If you regularly play the game on PC, there’s no doubt you haven’t encountered at least a few players that have used said Cold War hacks. You’ve probably thought about using them too at least once or twice, but haven’t done so because of a fear of getting banned. Luckily, there’s now a great solution for that which we’ll be discussing more about today. This solution is undetected Cold War hacks.  The Key Points to Keep in Mind Hacks for Cold War are very popular, but it’s very risky to use them.  Once you get banned, there’s no chance of recovering your account, which is why undetected hacks are a necessity.  Not all ‘’undetected’’ are truly undetected. You have to clearly decide which of them you choose.  Battlelog.co is the most trustable cheat provider of all in this department, as they offer truly amazing undetected Black Ops Cold War hacks .    Ho...
Read more

How to Manage Your Spinal Cord Injury in Arizona

Image
How to Manage Your Spinal Cord Injury in Arizona:  Arizona is a prosperous state in the United States, with a population of more than seven million people in 2019. It has a robust economy with an unemployment rate of 5.1% during the year. The state also posted a 2.7% job growth in 2018-2019, mainly driven by its healthcare industry. One of the growing segments in the state’s healthcare sector is medical cannabis. Experts recommend it to treat ailments like chronic pain and spinal cord injuries (SCI). However, you need to have a medical marijuana card in Arizona to buy medical cannabis legally. How to Manage Your Spinal Cord Injury in Arizona When to Seek Medical Help for Your SCI The National Spinal Cord Injury Association claimed an estimated 450,000 Americans are living with SCI. Also, there are around 17,000 new SCI cases in the U.S. every year. If you are an SCI sufferer, you should go to the hospital immediately if you experience one or more of the following symptoms af...
Read more

Jaydev Compares Cutting Beans With Pujara’s Ranji Final Innings, Gets A Hilarious Reply From Him | RVCJS

Image
The Indian cricketers are presently sitting inside their houses as the coronavirus outbreak has compelled each one of us to remain indoors to save ourselves from getting infected. While some players are getting active on social media networks and interacting with their fans or colleagues, several others are letting their fans know how they are spending time in the 21 days lockdown period. Indian cricketer Jaydev Unadkat under whose captaincy the Saurashtra team won the Ranji Trophy recently took to the micro-blogging site Twitter and posted a photo in which he showed the vegetables that he chopped. He also wrote heartwarming message for his mother as she has done such things infinite times but never showed off. Jaydev Unadkat’s tweet read, “By, Yours truly.. To, The Mother.. (who does it infinite times without any such show-off & appreciation)  #QuarantineLife” By, Yours truly.. To, The Mother.. (who does it infinite times without any such show-off & appreciation) #Q...
Read more