/PRNewswire/ NASA is inviting the public to take part in virtual activities and events as the agency s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover nears entry, descent,.
NASA Offers Opportunities for Media to Engage with Mars Perseverance Rover Landing
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ NASA will host virtual news briefings, live shows, and activities the week of Feb. 15 to discuss events surrounding the landing of its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. Landing on the Red Planet will occur about 3:55 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 18. Live landing commentary will begin at 2:15 p.m. on NASA Television, the agency s website, the NASA app, and YouTube.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the focus will be on virtual opportunities for the media and public, with in-person opportunities onsite at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California limited to members of the media who already have been credentialed.
“This month, three different nations will arrive on Mars, the United States, China and the UAE. That’s… that’s unheard of… right? This is a historic time!” says Jim Adams, the retired former deputy chief technology officer of NASA and former deputy director of planetary science, who spent nearly three decades with the space agency.
Indeed, February 2021 will be a particularly significant month for the realisation of the dream of eventually landing a human (or humans) on Mars. The China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) spacecraft, the Tianwen-1, launched July 2020, is expected to reach Mars’ orbit by 10 February 2021 and land its rover by May. The United Arab Emirates Space Agency’s Hope probe, which is part of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), the UAE’s first mission to Mars, was expected to reach the planet’s orbit a day earlier, on 9 February. It is designed to create a complete picture of the planet’s atmosphere and give scientists a better idea of
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An illustration depicts the Perseverance rover operating on Mars (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Space exploration is expected to ramp up further in 2021, and Mars promises to be a hot destination. Spacecrafts from three programs â Mars 2020 (US), Tianwen-1 (China), and Hope Probe (the United Arab Emirates or UAE) â are expected to enter the planetâs orbit in February, hoping to start new chapters of exploration there. Hereâs what is known so far about each mission.
Mars 2020
Seven minutes of harrowing descent to the Red Planet is in the not-so-distant future for NASAâs Mars 2020 mission. Launched on July 30, 2020, the missionâs Perseverance rover is scheduled to land on the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021.