This illustration depicts NASAs Mars 2020 rover studying rocks with its robotic arm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
What does Percy do throughout the day? A Martian day- or Sol- is 24 hours and 37 minutes long, and while every Sol is different, every one is jam-packed loaded with exciting science observations, discoveries, and activities! Lets follow Percy on Sol 345 (February 8th, 2022) to capture a peek into the life of a Martian explorer.
Percy awakened early in the early morning at 02:07 LMST (Local Mean Solar Time on Mars) to perform an information management activity for an onboard instrument called MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer), which utilizes a suite of sensors to keep track of weather condition throughout the Sol. After a short nap, it was time to wake up again and send out data from the previous Sols observations down to researchers on Earth through Mars orbiters and the Deep Space Network (DSN). Mars is circled by several orbiting satellites that pass on info in between the rover and objective control: each Sols strategy with commands for every activity is uplinked from Earth to Mars as soon as in the early morning, while images and details gathered by rover instruments are downlinked from Mars to Earth multiple times throughout the day and night.
A Morning Atmospheric Science Observation on Sol 345: This image of the Sun was taken by Perseverances Mastcam-Z. This type of observation is called a “standard tau” and is utilized to help characterize the atmosphere. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
The sun rose at 05:16, and the rover performed a series of day-to-day engineering activities to send out more data to Earth, manage power, and have a look at numerous instruments till the Sol 345 strategy was uplinked from mission control and got around 11:00. At 11:37, Percy utilized Mastcam-Z to take a “fundamental tau” aimed skyward towards the Sun, with the objective of measuring atmospheric optical density. At 11:50, Ingenuity took off for its 19th flight on Mars, photographing Séítah from above.
While the helicopter was flying over Séítah, Percy used SuperCam, Mastcam-Z, and WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) to observe four close-by rock targets called Vergons, Galabre, Montpezat, and Tragastel. SuperCam utilized its laser to at the same time gather information about the minerals contained in these rocks and clear away dust from the surfaces. Next, Mastcam-Z took some 3d stereo images documenting the targets. These 2 activities started at 12:09 and took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The rovers robotic arm was deployed at 13:54 so that the arm-mounted WATSON might get up close and personal to capture images in fine information, from simply a couple of centimeters away. Later, WATSON was turned off and the arm re-stowed. One of these targets would be selected for an abrasion activity in the next Sol, and the observations collected by the three instruments provided key details to assist the scientists and engineers select the very best one- which ended up being Montepezat!
From 16:10- 16:33 in the late afternoon, Percy took some climatic measurements, including another Mastcam-Z “basic tau” and a skyward Navcam image to look for clouds. Sundown was at 17:26, and the night was filled with more data transfers over the DSN and an engineering activity to check out some brand-new maneuvers for the ACA (Adaptive Caching Assembly), which is the part of the rover that stores cores after they are drilled. Finally, Percy went to sleep prior to 21:00, tired out after another long yet exciting Sol on Mars!
Composed by Denise Buckner, Student Collaborator at University of Florida.
Percy woke up early in the early morning at 02:07 LMST (Local Mean Solar Time on Mars) to perform an information management activity for an onboard instrument called MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer), which uses a suite of sensing units to keep an eye on weather condition throughout the Sol. After a brief nap, it was time to wake up again and send out information from the previous Sols observations down to scientists on Earth by means of Mars orbiters and the Deep Space Network (DSN). Mars is circled by a number of orbiting satellites that pass on info between the rover and objective control: each Sols plan with commands for every activity is uplinked from Earth to Mars when in the morning, while images and information gathered by rover instruments are downlinked from Mars to Earth numerous times throughout the day and night.
Percy went to sleep just prior to 21:00, tired out after another long yet exciting Sol on Mars!