What are the remains of a crashed spacecraft on Mars photographed by NASA?

In recent days, a series of photos have gone viral again, showing remains of a crashed spacecraft on the surface of Mars. These are images taken POT V 2022 and there is nothing mysterious about what lies behind it, but it is certainly a striking and unique vision of space exploration. What they show is the remains of a space capsule. Aeroshellwhich carried the Mars rover Perseverance and to the helicopterIngenuity to Mars in 2020and which was faced with the task of deploying them after penetrating the Martian atmosphere on 20,000 km/h.

A risky operation that NASA at the time defined as “7 Minutes of Terror”regarding the time it took for communication between Earth and Mars, and that mission control was going to wait to find out if the landing was successful after it happened.

Photos were taken by Ingenuity at Flight 26made on April 19, 2022. Mars helicopter far exceeds initial expectations for implementation 5 flights to Mars and completed before 75damaging one of its blades in 76 and not being able to take off again after the accident in January of this year.

Among the many obstacles the mission had to overcome Mars 2020 There was a critical moment of landing on the surface of Mars. This was not NASA’s first experiment, but No one at Perseverance had ever worked with such a large and heavy machine before..

Before Mars 2020, NASA’s rovers Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity successfully landed on the Red Planet. TemporaryV 1996did this on the platform from which he was deployed, already on the ground, although he barely managed to survive. Spirit And Opportunity They achieved this as in 2004using the system external airbags which protected them at the moment of contact with the surface. Curiositydeployed in 2012 and much heavier than the previous ones – 11.5 kg, 185 kg, 185 kg and 899 kg, respectively – made this decision unrealistic, which was the birth of the system sky crane.

The sky crane appeared after NASA engineers They would rule out any other possibility of landing a vehicle of this size. —Persistence is like a small machine weighing one ton – on Mars and, although it was originally thought “crazy” idea directors of NASA, was the one who finally succeeded MSL (Mars Science LaboratoryCuriosity mission and Mars 2020 can be carried out successfully.

The Perseverance rover, with the Ingenuity helicopter inside, took off inside the space capsule. Aeroshellrocket propelled Atlas B-451July 30, 2020. After a 7-month journey, Aeroshell entered the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 20,000 km/h.

An unprotected space capsule capable of withstanding temperatures up to 870°Сthe rover would have been destroyed. Aeroshell, manufacturer: Lockheed Martinopened a huge parachute, which allowed him to slow down to 320km/h. During this period the capsule ejectable front cover – the base, if you understand us – which left Perseverance exposed to the Martian atmosphere, and then the cone-shaped rear body.

Next up, Aeroshell He lowered the rover using cables until it touched the ground.already at speed 126km/hwhile the capsule design maintained flight control through its engines. Once Perseverance was on the ground, Aeroshell moved away from the rover to finally crashed into the Jezero crater at an altitude of several hundred metersplanned landing site.

Images courtesy of the Ingenuity show. remains of the capsule, cone-shaped rear Aeroshell and part of the parachute making the successful landing of Perseverance, which will turn four years old on February 18, possible.

As NASA explained in a blog post about these images, “the protective layer on the back panel appears to be remained intact during entry into the Martian atmosphere‘ and most of the ’80 high-strength suspension lines connecting the rear body to the parachute are visible and appear intact.’ In addition, “the (parachute) covering no signs of damage supersonic airflow during inflation,” valuable information for future missions to Mars and the reason why Ingenuity flew over the landing debris at an altitude of 8 meters.