New NASA Rover will become a work of engineering art
Source:
According to the plans of space Agency NASA, the next Mars Rover will travel to Mars in July 2020. The machine is still in production, but the NASA employees periodically publish information that shed light on how he eventually will be. As yet unnamed Rover will be literally stuffed to the eyeballs with modern equipment and new technologies. One only new cameras are worth.
The Rover developed by the staff Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. While the machine is codenamed Mars 2020, but later the developers plan to come up with a more friendly and memorable name, as was the case with Curiosity. Like its predecessor, Mars 2020 will surf of Mars and explore the Martian soil, atmosphere and natural phenomena. And for that the Rover will be a lot of new useful devices.
The Rover will be equipped with 23 different cameras and this was 6 more than the Curiosity. Nine cameras will perform engineering tasks, seven scientific, and the remaining 7 will track the process of moving Mars 2020 on the surface of the planet. During the descent of the Rover on the planet's surface, the camera will track the process of opening the parachute. These "eyes" will allow the Rover to create a panorama of the red planet in high resolution, quickly detect obstacles, and explore the surface in great detail. Of course, all the cameras will work closely with other scientific equipment.
Curiosity got the camera Mastcam and Mars 2020 will have a new generation instrument called Mastcam Z, where "Z" stands for "zoom". All the cameras will provide wider color gamut, and the data obtained, scientists will be able to recreate the Martian landscape in full 3D. This will be achieved thanks to the support of cameras of the stereoscopic images that, among other things, will allow the Rover to accurately estimate the distance to objects. In the case of previous Mars Rover cameras Navcam and Hazcam allowed to navigate and avoid hazards in its path. They had a resolution of 1 megapixel, and were equipped with black-and-white matrix. In the new generation cameras used 20 megapixel full color matrix. They will also be equipped with a system that reduces the blur of motion, and wide angle lenses.
Someone will say that's not such a big deal – to improve the camera. Won some today matrix in modern smartphones are. But in the case of the Rover, which is millions of kilometers from Earth, a similar improvement of the equipment and ensuring its smooth operation in the harsh environment of an alien planet — a truly challenging task. Besides, NASA scientists have developed a new data compression protocols to efficiently transmit photographs to Earth.
Mars 2020, of course, will be equipped not only with cameras. New scientific equipment includes x-ray fluorescence spectrometer for studies of Martian soil, a new radar installation, microphone, UV-spectrometer and even a small drone-scout Helicopter Scout Mars, powered by built-in solar panels. The Rover boasts a more durable wheels (we all remember how the wheels of the Curiosity of unfriendly Martian soil), increased power and performance.
One of the objectives of Mars 2020 will attempt to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, which mostly consists of carbon dioxide. This experiment is very important in eve . As for the landing site of the Rover here at NASA yet there is no consensus. There is a list of several suitable locations, but so far scientists have not chosen any of them. In any case, watch for this mission will be incredibly interesting. Just have to wait for 2020 and see with your own eyes.
Recommended
The Americans on the moon: what everyone should know?
the Upcoming cosmonautics day is my favorite holiday. It marks the triumph of the human mind: in just four thousand years Homo Sapiens went from hunter-gatherers to space explorers. 12 April 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in ...
Why are some galaxies spiral shaped?
you Know what surprised me the most? The fact that we perceive the surrounding world as it is. Animals, plants, the laws of physics and the cosmos are perceived by many people as something so mundane and boring that they invent fairies, ghosts, monst...
Astronomers were able to see the death of another star system
In the cosmic ocean drifts a lot of mysteries about the existence of which we are unaware. One of these was uncovered five years ago, when astronomers have discovered a lonely star at a distance of 570 light years from Earth, the brightness of which ...
Related News
Roskosmos wants to build orbital nuclear power plant
the Problem is fuel delivery to the orbit of the Earth is quite serious. Now to power satellites and other spacecraft, requiring a long stay in space, solar panels are used. But the specialists of Roskosmos went the other way and ...
Flight and life on Mars would be akin to a trip to hell
the space Agency NASA and SpaceX company is not only trying to figure out how to deliver humans to Mars, they also think about how the 200-day journey and in fact life itself on the red planet can affect the human body and what to...
Aliens may be hiding in the oceans, says astronomer Alan stern
the Search for intelligent extraterrestrial life on other planets is a long-standing question. After decades since the beginning of this search was proposed several theories that attempt to explain the reasons for our failures in ...
Boeing began to prepare the rocket for its "space taxi"
Aerospace Boeing began Assembly of the rocket Atlas V, designed to deliver astronauts and cargo to the ISS on Board the new device CST-100 Cockpit that Atlas V will be put in orbit. Now the main vehicle delivering astronauts to t...
Saudi Arabia is investing in space tourism $ 1 billion
the Head of the American company, Richard Branson has got a very powerful and rich friend Saudi Arabia. Perhaps with the support of the state, his dream will finally be realized in the space will be able to fly not only the past y...
10 important missions in the history of NASA
Since half a century ago created the National Aeronautics and space administration (NASA, NASA), it has launched hundreds of missions into space. Since the probes that touched the borders of our Solar system to manned capsules tha...
Spaceship graveyard: what is it and where is it located?
the Most distant from land point on Earth has many names, but most often it is called point Nemo, or oceanic pole of inaccessibility. It is located at the coordinates 48°52,6' South latitude and 123°to 23.6' West longitude. The cl...
CERN: our Universe shouldn't exist
"All our observations find a complete symmetry between matter and antimatter, why our Universe shouldn't exist", says Christian Smorra from the collaboration BASE at the research center CERN. "There has to be asymmetry, but we jus...
Vector, a rival of SpaceX, will make three flights next year
Aerospace company Vector has reached agreements with NASA management and received approval on three commercial launch of their rockets. All three of the launch is from the Baikonur NASA, located in Virginia — CNBC. Executiv...
India plans to launch a spacecraft to the moon in 2018
In recent years more and more of the global aerospace agencies are beginning to plan missions to explore the moon. And many will be, not that soon. But recently Indian space research organization (ISRO) said it plans to launch the...
Former employees of SpaceX will begin to print the rocket on 3D printers
What will they do in order to reduce the cost of production of space rockets some sort of time ten! Here, for example, former employees of SpaceX and Bue Origin founded a start Space Relativity, the purpose of which — print ...
Five NASA photos that changed the world
When humanity first broke the bonds of gravity and overcame the limits of our planet's atmosphere, we saw the Universe in its present splendor, which was never seen. Now we are no longer limited to our place of stay on the Ground ...
Blue Origin conducted the first firing tests of the engine BE-4
looks Like the New Glen missile, developed by the company Blue Origin, has become one step closer to its first flight, because now she really has working engines, passed the first tests. Yes, yet rejoice too early, but the work on...
The signals aliens might be too complicated for us
"each of these stars can be new York, Paris, London, and we even about it do not suspect," says Nate Tellis, University of California, Berkeley, commenting on the analysis 5600 stars, conducted by the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, w...
The European southern Observatory announced "an unprecedented discovery" in space
last week, the European southern Observatory (ESO) whetted the Internet news about the "unprecedented discovery". And finally, the organization revealed that for the first time in history, astronomers observed gravitational waves ...
The first to study a meteor, born in the Martian volcano
Today it is well known that Mars is cold, dry, and geologically dead planet. But billions of years ago, when she was young, its atmosphere was denser, and the surface was liquid water. Millions of years ago, the planet also posses...
Ion engine NASA showed a new record performance
Developed by the University of Michigan and the United States air force new ion engine for the X3 space Agency NASA has set a new efficiency record. Against the background of these news, some experts eyes lit up, and they are all ...
The head of Virgin Galactic flew SpaceShipTwo on in six months
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, said in an interview with Business Insider that, according to the company, the spacecraft SpaceShipTwo will fly into space in the next three months. Yet without the people, but in the n...
Space mission of NASA is under threat
In recent years, space agencies around the world are planning large-scale research mission. They all require tremendous amounts of energy carried aboard the spacecraft. And if close to the Sun else can you do with a solar-powered,...
Four scenarios of the end of our planet
Nibiru. Planet X. the Apocalypse of the Mayan calendar. Split. New Great flood. An uncontrollable flame. Biblical prophecy. SUPERVOLCANO. A stray asteroid or a comet. Every few years (or even several months, depending on what part...
Comments (0)
This article has no comment, be the first!