All Questions
23
questions
17
votes
4
answers
5k
views
What is the largest hurdle of the mission to Mars?
I was shocked when I recently found out just how long it takes to get to Mars. I've been conducting a very informal survey amongst peers of how just how long people think it takes us to travel to Mars....
- 523
24
votes
5
answers
17k
views
Olympus Mons - viable Mars landing site?
I'm becoming interested in how Mars missions are planning their landings. One aspect I see brought up time and again is Mars' awkward atmosphere - 'just enough there that you have to care about it'. ...
- 523
17
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Are launch windows to Mars avoided if they result in landings during dust storm season?
This comment suggests that orbit before descent to Mars' surface allows a mission to delay the landing if the weather conditions are bad. I think that Tianwen-1 will be the first to put a lander rover ...
- 149k
62
votes
4
answers
12k
views
How were Perseverance's cables "cut" after touching down?
In the NASA conference today regarding Perseverance's successful landing on Mars, they talked about how you can see the cable that held the rover in this picture below (I circled the cable).
I'm ...
- 703
17
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What are the disadvantages of parachute+airbag for atmospheric landing, versus rocket-based?
After Sojourner success, repeated by Spirit and Opportunity, it seemed like we had developed a fail-proof system for atmospheric landing for our probes: there's very little that can go wrong with the ...
- 55.1k
13
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How precise are our Mars landings?
The idea of surface rendezvous for supply missions to a Mars expedition (either before or after arrival of a manned expedition) seems to come up every now and then. This would allow a manned ...
- 7,330
10
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Won't the heat sensor probe interfere with the seismometer?
I've read that the Mars InSight Seismometer will be deployed before the HP3 probe. Won't the digging interfere with the seismometer? Or the shock produced will be small enough to be dissipated by the ...
- 203
10
votes
2
answers
316
views
How, in the SpaceX Mars stack, do they plan to address de novo landing sites?
Given a new, unprepared "in the field" landing site for a rocket, what is the SpaceX strategy? Are the landing legs intended to be rated to handle that kind of instability? How can they possibly be?
...
- 2,267
5
votes
1
answer
285
views
Has there ever been an attempt or serious consideration for spacecraft to land on Mars without an ablative-type heat shield?
My answer to Do exploration spacecraft enter Mars atmosphere against Mars rotation, or on the same direction? lauds the use of ablative heat shields for minimizing radiative heating of a spacecraft by ...
- 149k
-2
votes
4
answers
546
views
The Mars parachute opened against a black sky on Earth but a blue-magenta sky on Mars during Perseverance landing. How is it possible? [closed]
I have discovered two images (see below) and I do not find an explanation for the different color of the sky as seen from below the parachute just starting to deploy. The video with the test performed ...
- 981
9
votes
2
answers
512
views
Why cannot supersonic retropropulsion, for use in the Red Dragon lander be tested on Earth?
What is the reason that Red Dragon is testing supersonic retropropulsion on a Mars mission. Is the Earth's upper atmosphere too different to that of Mars to validate this method as a viable way of ...
- 674
8
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Is it probable the Red Dragon will successfully land on Mars on the first try?
Today it was revealed that SpaceX has a deal with NASA to send a Red Dragon lander to Mars, launched on a Falcon Heavy, in 2018. The plan is that it will use supersonic retro-propulsion during the ...
- 21.4k
7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Could Ingenuity survive if Perseverance failed?
For the purposes of this question, we will assume that they both landed successfully. Ingenuity was deployed properly. Then, Perseverance drove away, and then Perserverance say hit a large rock and ...
- 3,756
7
votes
2
answers
579
views
How tall are the "cliffs of the delta" in the Perseverance rover's landing ellipse?
edit: For all the cliff-doubters in comments, here's a quote of Project Scientist Ken Farley in the new NASA video After the Landing: An Update about NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover after ...
- 149k
5
votes
2
answers
269
views
Curiosity's powered descent stage test
The landing procedure of Curiosity on Mars has been described as a real challenge in part because of the powered descent stage and sky crane. Indeed the separation of Curiosity with the backshell + ...
- 153