{"id":5553,"date":"2021-06-01T08:34:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T08:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1355345"},"modified":"2021-06-01T08:34:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T08:34:02","slug":"the-trials-and-triumphs-of-our-missions-to-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=5553","title":{"rendered":"The trials and triumphs of our missions to Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China\u2019s rover Zhurong<\/a>, named after the mythological fire god, successfully touched down on Mars on May 14 \u2013 the first time that China has successfully landed a rover on the red planet.<\/p>\n

On May 19, China\u2019s National Space Administration issued the first images the rover had taken on Mars.<\/p>\n

After a summer of Mars launches in 2020, and with 2021 shaping up to be a successful one for landers and orbiters, it might seem like landing on Mars is routine.<\/p>\n

Yet to understand why a first successful landing is such a huge achievement, we need to look back at the complicated history and legacy of landing on Earth\u2019s smaller neighbor.<\/p>\n

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FIRST PHOTOS FROM THE CHINESE MARS ROVER ZHURONG IS OUT! pic.twitter.com\/6K8RQQqjPy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin) May 19, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Seven minutes of terror<\/h2>\n

\u201cMars is hard\u201d has become a meme now, thrown around during Mars landings. It\u2019s also terrifyingly true. Three things make Mars landings difficult<\/a> \u2013 the planet\u2019s gravity, Mars\u2019 atmosphere and our distance from the red planet.<\/p>\n

Mars is less massive than Earth, but its atmosphere is also perilously thin. The Moon has almost no atmosphere so landers can use retrorockets \u2013- rocket engines that provide thrust in an upwards direction \u2013 to slow their descent to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s atmosphere is thicker than that of Mars and that allows craft to glide gently down to the surface. Mars\u2019 atmosphere is too thin for that sort of Earth-like gentle gliding, but as a craft plummets towards the Martian surface it can reach speeds of more than 12,000 mph.<\/p>\n

Trying to use retrorockets would subject a lander to so much turbulence that the craft could be ripped apart. What\u2019s more, any craft trying to land on Mars suffers from the effects of friction as it hurtles through the atmosphere, risking burning up.<\/p>\n

Finally, because the distance from Earth to Mars is so huge, scientists and engineers on Earth can\u2019t send commands to a craft instantaneously. Instead, they have to pre-program a sequence of actions that the craft will perform as it descends through the Martian atmosphere.<\/p>\n

From entry to landing takes about seven minutes. Here, scientists and engineers have no control over the craft \u2013 they have to trust that everything will go right and the craft will land safely. If it doesn\u2019t, a crash landing could quite literally shatter thousands of hopes and dreams. It\u2019s a nerve-racking experience \u2013 which is why it\u2019s been dubbed the \u201cseven minutes of terror<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Today, scientists model, simulate and track every aspect of a Mars mission \u2013 but there are some things they can only learn through landing on the red planet.<\/p>\n

From crashes to Curiosity<\/h2>\n

The first Mars launch was in 1962, five years after the space age began with the launch of Sputnik<\/a>. The then Soviet Union tried to launch a satellite into orbit around Mars, but problems with the rocket that launched it meant the satellite never left Earth\u2019s orbit and ultimately decayed in our atmosphere.<\/p>\n

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