02/23/2021 – Ephemeris – The Perseverance rover landed on Mars taking video all the way down

Note: There was a news conference at JPL, Monday at 2 pm EST where videos of the parts of the landing were shown. Most hadn’t made it to the https://mars.nasa.gov website by Monday night. The news conference with the videos can be found on NASA TV, NASA’s YouTube channel and other sites.

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, February 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 6:22, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:28. The Moon, halfway from first quarter to full, will set at 6:15 tomorrow morning.

It looks like the Perseverance Rover was gently lowered to a flat spot in Jezero crater on Mars about a kilometer or two from the edge of the river delta it was aiming to be near. It is in the midst of checkouts and the unfolding of its masts and its various appendages. For the third time the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to take a picture of the entry craft on its parachute seen above the delta, as it had with Curiosity and the Phoenix lander before all the while performing its communication relay duties. A few images have come back from Percy, as the Rover is nicknamed as I record this Sunday night. By Monday Percy should have sent back more images and perhaps parts of the landing video.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

A frame from the video looking down at the Perseverance rover from the Sky Crane. In the video as the rover neared the ground it was enveloped by a cloud of dust, so the support lines simply disappeared into the cloud of dust that enveloped the rover. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit NASA/JPL.

The Perseverance rover on the parachute over Jezero crater from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The circle on the image is the point where the rover landed. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

02/18/2021 – Ephemeris – The Perseverance Rover will land on Mars this afternoon

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, February 18th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 37 minutes, setting at 6:15, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:36. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 1:30 tomorrow morning.

Later this afternoon the Perseverance Rover will land in Jezero crater on Mars. NASA will have a live Internet feed from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory starting at 2:15 pm EST (19:15 UTC). Atmospheric entry will be at 3:48 pm EST (20:48 UTC), landing at 3:55 pm EST (20:55 UTC). This is Earth received time. The events actually happened 11 minutes 22 seconds earlier on Mars. Though cameras on the spacecraft will be recording the landing activity it will not be sent to Earth in real time due to the weak signal during entry. The spacecraft will be sending tones only for specific events during what is called EDL, Entry, Descent and Landing or “Seven Minutes of Terror”. If all goes well the first images will be taken and sent of its surroundings. And in the next weeks we’ll get an actual replay sent back of the landing with color and sound. It will be so cool!

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Links

NASA on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nasa

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public

Graphic of the Entry, Descent and Landing of the Perseverance Rover. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Perseverance drilling for a sample in Jezero crater. Artist drawing – NASA/JPL