Video Kidibot

Tag: descent

  • Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)

    Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)

    NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission captured thrilling footage of its rover landing in Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The real footage in this video was captured by several cameras that are part of the rover’s entry, descent, and landing suite. The views include a camera looking down from the spacecraft’s descent stage (a kind of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its landing site), a camera on the rover looking up at the descent stage, a camera on the top of the aeroshell (a capsule protecting the rover) looking up at that parachute, and a camera on the bottom of the rover looking down at the Martian surface.

    The audio embedded in the video comes from the mission control call-outs during entry, descent, and landing.

    For more information about Perseverance, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/perseverance

    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

  • Schiaparelli’s descent to Mars in real time

    Schiaparelli’s descent to Mars in real time

    Visualisation of the ExoMars Schiaparelli module entering and descending through the atmosphere to land on Mars. The animation follows a simulated timeline of the module, starting when it enters the atmosphere at an altitude of 121 km at 14:42 GMT. In six minutes it will use a heatshield, parachute and thrusters to brake from 21 000 km/h to a near standstill 2 m above the surface, where a crushable structure on its underside will absorb the final shock.

    The key operational milestones are highlighted in the animation at the predicted times at which they have been calculated to occur. However, the actual times may vary depending on the atmospheric conditions on the day, the final path through the atmosphere and the speed at which the module descends.

    The times indicated in the animation are onboard spacecraft times at Mars. The one-way signal travel time on 19 October is just under 10 minutes, meaning that signals relayed by spacecraft at Mars are received on Earth about 10 minutes after the event itself has happened on the Red Planet.

    Both Schiaparelli and the Mars scenery in this animation are computer-generated.

  • Schiaparelli’s descent to Mars

    Schiaparelli’s descent to Mars

    Visualisation of the ExoMars Schiaparelli module entering and descending through the martian atmosphere to land on Mars.

    Schiaparelli will enter the atmosphere at about 21 000 km/h and in less than six minutes it will use a heatshield, a parachute and thrusters to slow its descent before touching down in the Meridiani Planum region close to the equator, absorbing the final contact with a crushable structure.

    The entire process will take less than six minutes: the animation has been sped up.

    Schiaparelli is set to separate from the Trace Gas Orbiter on 16 October, after a seven-month cruise together through space, and will enter the atmosphere on 19 October at 14:42 GMT.

    For an overview of the key timings and altitudes corresponding to the events portrayed in this animation see the Schiaparelli descent sequence graphic: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/02/ExoMars_2016_Schiaparelli_descent_sequence_16_9

    Both Schiaparelli and the Mars scenery in this animation were computer generated.

    More about ExoMars:
    http://www.esa.int/exomars

    ExoMars FAQ:
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/ExoMars_frequently_asked_questions

  • Visualising Rosetta’s descent

    Visualising Rosetta’s descent

    Animation visualising Rosetta’s descent to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 30 September 2016. The sequence is speeded up to show the relative motion of Rosetta and the rotating comet below.

    Rosetta will target a smooth region close to several large pits measuring more than 100 m across and 60 m deep, on the small lobe of the comet.

    The impact time is predicted as 11:20 GMT +/- 20 minutes on 30 September.

    More information about Rosetta’s descent towards region of active pits, see
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_s_descent_towards_region_of_active_pits

    For the latest updates, see http://rosetta.esa.int

    Credit: ESA/ATG medialab, Music: Pawel Blaszczak

  • Philae’s descent: closing in on the landing site

    Philae’s descent: closing in on the landing site

    The final steps of Philae’s descent towards Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014, as seen by a hypothetical observer close to the landing site on the comet.

    The background image was taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 14 September 2014 from a distance of about 30 km.

    Philae was provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.

    Credit: ESA/ATG medialab; background image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

  • Philae’s descent and science on the surface

    Philae’s descent and science on the surface

    Annotated version of the Philae’s mission at comet 67P animation.

    The animation begins with the deployment of Philae from Rosetta at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in November 2014. It will take several hours for it to reach the surface. Because of the comet’s extremely low gravity, landing gear will absorb the small forces of landing while ice screws in the probe’s feet and a harpoon system will lock the probe to the surface. At the same time a thruster on top of the lander will push it down to counteract the impulse of the harpoon imparted in the opposite direction.

    Once it is anchored to the comet, the lander will begin its primary science mission, based on its 64-hour initial battery lifetime. The animation shows a number of the science instruments in action on the surface.

    Rosetta’s Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.

    Credits: ESA/ATG medialab

  • Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror

    Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror

    Team members share the challenges of Curiosity’s final minutes to landing on the surface of Mars.

  • Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation

    Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation

    This 11-minute animation depicts key events of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, which will launch in late 2011 and land a rover, Curiosity, on Mars in August 2012. A shorter 4-minute version of this animation, with narration, is also available on our youtube page.