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Perseverance rover’s descent and touchdown on Mars [video]

507 points by jvanderbot 6y ago

jvanderbot 6y ago
Personally, I didn't work on this, but I'm completely amazed. To think Curiosity did this 8 years ago as well is kind of staggering to me.
interestica 6y ago
360 view on surface. Viewable in VR https://youtu.be/wE-aQO9XD1g https://youtu.be/wE-aQO9XD1g
somedude895 6y ago
This is incredible quality. What's the file size of the video and what path did the data take?
- jvanderbot 6y ago
  The briefing said they had downloaded ~20 GB of data over the last few days. I'm sure much of that was _not_ EDL data.
  - interestica 6y ago
    30 GB of data and 23000 images. Crazy. https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=562 https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=562
- cguess 6y ago
  I believe the data is uplinked through orbiters than relayed back from there.
- rtkwe 6y ago
  It got sent back via orbiters ranging from the ESA's Trace Gas orbiter, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or Mars Odyssey. Through those they can get up to 2 megabits per second [0] back to earth but that depends a lot on the orbiter it's talking to at a given time. The TGO is doing a lot and is one of the early high speed relays for the data from Perseverance. [1] There's also direct links to and from Earth but they're significantly slower. [0] https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communications/ https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communicatio... [1] https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-mars-2020-perseverance-rover-is-about-to-land-on-the-red-planet-it-will-have-some-help-from-these-mars-orbiters/ https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-mars-2020-perseverance-rover-...
  - donarb 6y ago
    The more impressive part is that the sky crane shot pictures, video and data and had to download everything to the rover before it was cut loose. As soon as the rover wheels touched ground, the tether was cut and the lander flew away.
    - rtkwe 6y ago
      That's relatively simple just wire them directly into the rover to start with so the data is always in the right place.
    - HarHarVeryFunny 6y ago
      I'd like to know how they cut/released the tether, and if there's any fallback in case 1st release attempt fails. The entire mission is fucked if the tether release failed, or if the sky crane tries to fly away while still tethered.
      - donarb 6y ago
        They use explosive bolts that attach the tether to the deck of the rover. They're almost 100% fool proof. Here's a Wikipedia entry, they're called pyrotechnic fasteners and NASA uses a lot of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrotechnic_fastener https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrotechnic_fastener
        polishdude20 6y ago
        But the image of the cables show what looks to actually be a literal cut cable. Not just a connector being disconnected but a clean slice.
        snarf 6y ago
        From today's Reddit AMA with the NASA team, they use pyrotechnics to set off a guillotine like device to cut the cables. Possibly something like https://psemc.com/products/pyrotechnic-cable-cutter/ https://psemc.com/products/pyrotechnic-cable-cutter/ Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/lpzbzo/were_scientists_and_engineers_working_on_nasas/godvks8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/lpzbzo/were_scientist...
O5vYtytb 6y ago
I don't know why I'm surprised at the amount of footage and the quality, but I am. This is really setting a new bar for missions like this, similar to what SpaceX has done in recent years. Stuff like this has got to be huge for getting interest and excitement from the general public and especially kids.
- krm01 6y ago
  It would be great to see some startups work on interplanetary video streaming tech. If you're building an other video streaming service, stop what your doing, and give this a try. I know I know. Very, very hard to solve and all, and this is totally a fanboy speaking, but it would have been awesome if we could have seen this footage in (as close as possible to) real-time when the landing happened.
  - djxfade 6y ago
    So, the minimum delay between Mars and Earth is around 11 minutes, usually higher. And the bandwidth is something like 60 MiB/Sol. This is just totally unrealistic with any known tech for the foreseeable future
    - apendleton 6y ago
      Current delay is ~11 minutes, but minimum is much lower (~4 minutes, per https://blogs.esa.int/mex/2012/08/05/time-delay-between-mars-and-earth/ https://blogs.esa.int/mex/2012/08/05/time-delay-between-mars... ). We were last at that closest point in October, and the various voyages (this one, UAE's Hope, China's Tianwen-1) were timed so the closest pint was during the transit; we're a bit past it now.
  - giantrobot 6y ago
    Nothing about "interplanetary streaming" needs to be invented. The limiting factor is the size and power of the transmitter on Mars (or wherever). The MRO orbiter for instance is the highest bandwidth probe we've sent to Mars and it maxes out at about 4Mbps when Mars is closest to Earth. When Mars is farther it can only do about 500Kbps. That relatively prodigious rate requires the use of 34m receiving antennas on Earth. So if you wanted to stream video from a GoPro on a Mars orbiter you could do so with current technology, you'd just need to build some big-ass antennas on Earth and then build and launch the Mars orbiters. Besides being technically difficult (because rocket science) it would be really expensive.
netcraft 6y ago
So glad they've realized the value in allowing everyone to experience how hard these things are. So impressive, I can't wait to watch this video over and over. The inflation of the parachute is spectacular, and knowing how hard it is, and how hard it is to test on earth - its just incredible. And the skycrane was flawless - just so impressive how well it works. Too bad it flies off to crash and can't land gently somewhere to maybe be able to use it for its own purpose.
- baggy_trough 6y ago
  If there was mass available to add something to the sky crane, you'd be better off putting that thing on the rover, since the rover has the plutonium power pack. I do feel a bit sorry for the crane as well though :)
  - spookthesunset 6y ago
    This is what I was thinking. That sky crane has to be as barebones as can possibly be made. Every single bit of mass on it is something that could be better used elseware. Tradeoff of course is if you skimp on the mass too much you'll get an unreliable sky crane and the whole thing is a dud.
    - jamiek88 6y ago
      Sky crane will be used for seismic measurements with another vehicle picking up the waves from it slamming into mars firma on the other side of the planet so some use of it at least!
- midasuni 6y ago
  SpaceX broadcasts really raised the bar on what the public expect from space, and with it brought a lot of excitement. Great that scientific program is following in those footsteps.
  - systemvoltage 6y ago
    Ehh...to be fair, Space exploration has always been an excitement for public ever since the Apollo days. NASA's PR team has been stellar for over 50 years in inspiring people around the world. Indeed, SpaceX upped the game for live broadcast. Let's put it this way - if SpaceX didn't exist, I am sure Mars 2020 program would have had high resolution cameras and videos of the landing, along with all the excitement from the public. It's just inevitable as technology progresses. Keep in mind that social media wasn't a thing back then. NASA/JPL and the Perseverence program isn't following anyone's footsteps here.
bryan0 6y ago
One of the engineers does a great shot-by-shot commentary of this video about 15 minutes into their live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYQwuYZbA6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYQwuYZbA6o
davidg109 6y ago
After such a shitty 2020, this is just what we needed. Incredible.
aphextron 6y ago
As incredible as this footage is, it's even more mindblowing to realize we've been doing this for 50 years now. We know how to land on mars. Time to do it with people.
- NikolaeVarius 6y ago
  This method has been used twice, it is nowhere near human rated, hence why its called the 7 minutes of terror. For all the engineering, it has to be perfect or splat
- rtkwe 6y ago
  We know how to land relatively small things on Mars landing humans will be a much larger craft and because of that a harder task.
  - yread 6y ago
    But you don't have to worry that much about kicking up a lot of dust (the self-loading meatbags on board can clean your solar panels) so you can just point your thrusters at the ground and play with the throttle a little
    - rtkwe 6y ago
      It's not just the landing, that's relatively simple and can be mostly done with bigger thrusters on the craft but you have to slow down a lot before you can safely. Right now that's done through a heat shield then a parachute and finally the actual propulsive landing of the SkyCrane. We've done some testing of inflatable shields for the first step but nothing practiced actually in the Martian atmosphere yet and parachutes aren't great for heavier things. You want to use the other two to slow down as much as possible so you're not hauling extra fuel all the way to Mars. Ideally you'd be using ISRU units to generate your return fuel too.
- holoduke 6y ago
  Whats the point of doing it with humans. Robots are getting better every year. Humans not really. Robots will most likely first build an settlement on mars before humans will arrive.
meepmorp 6y ago
I was really surprised at how fast the heat shield dropped away, and slightly disappointed that we didn't get to see it hit the ground.
- jvanderbot 6y ago
  HiRise captured the whole shebang: An image with the lander, heat shield, descent stage, and parachute. The descender is always a big black smear after these things, which is quite sad. I'm looking for the link, but the NASA TV feed had it.
  - teraflop 6y ago
    Here you go: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/perseverance-and-mars-2020-spacecraft-components-on-the-surface https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/perseverance-and-mars...
  - meepmorp 6y ago
    Well, there goes the rest of my afternoon. Edit: no video I can find; I'd just find satisfying to watch it hit the ground, in real time.
- HenryBemis 6y ago
  I was hoping for the same, but at 9.5km away, and with a decelerating speed of 150m/s we wouldn't see but only a pixel. I wonder if they have the time/it's in their plan to send the bot over to record where it landed, the state that it's in, etc. If they want to simulate assess the damage, it would be cheaper to make heat shield 50 of them on Earth and drop them from 10-15km. I assume that every minute is gold and they already got a X-days meter-by-meter plan on what to do with little room for free exploration.
  - Nekhrimah 6y ago
    > I wonder if they have the time/it's in their plan to send [Perseverance] over to record where [the heat shield] landed I was thinking the same, but more for the fact that surely the impact has made a hole of some description that could be interesting to look into. Take advantage of the already expended energy to penetrate the surface layers.
aent 6y ago
Here's a recording of the martian wind from one of the rover microphones https://soundcloud.com/nasa/first-sounds-from-mars-filters-out-rover-self-noise/s-rnjGarHQjxB https://soundcloud.com/nasa/first-sounds-from-mars-filters-o...
aosaigh 6y ago
In case the other thread doesn't make the front page, they also added a microphone to this lander and managed to capture the sound of Mar's wind, which to me is almost more amazing: https://soundcloud.com/nasa/first-sounds-from-mars-filters-out-rover-self-noise https://soundcloud.com/nasa/first-sounds-from-mars-filters-o...
- geocrasher 6y ago
  And it's not a Rick Roll. Well done.
- wycy 6y ago
  Pretty cool, although it's so hard to really get a sense of sound of wind with a microphone. I guess the takeaway is that Mars is super quiet.
  - jandrese 6y ago
    1% atmospheric pressure would do that. Sound won't travel very well through the Martian atmosphere.
    - wycy 6y ago
      Wow, very interesting. I had a pre-conceived notion that Martian atmospheric pressure was something like 20% of ours, but you're right, it's quite a bit lower than even that.
      - AnotherGoodName 6y ago
        If only. >The minimum safe lower limit for the partial pressures of oxygen in a gas mixture is 0.16 bars (16 kPa) absolute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_pressure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_pressure If it was 20% that would be survivable with just an oxygen mask fwiw. Humans can go down to 16% atm pressure safely if they breathe 100% oxygen. The rest of the body can easily handle the pressure difference (1 full atm of pressure is equivalent to being 10meters underwater as a guide, human orifices have no issue with it contrary to pop sci beliefs). So yes it's not 20% and it would be nice if it was.
tibbydudeza 6y ago
Just amazing.
albertzeyer 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars > To date, no proof has been found of past or present life on Mars. I wonder how long it takes until we get the first confirmation of some sort of life on Mars (e.g. something like bacteria or so). Is this realistic already in the coming days?
- carabiner 6y ago
  1996: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHhZQWAtWyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHhZQWAtWyQ
  - albertzeyer 6y ago
    So far life on Mars was not really confirmed, right? I thought this is the main goal of this mission. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseverance_(rover) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseverance_(rover) > The rover's goals include looking for past Martian environments capable of supporting life, seeking out possible microbial life in those environments, ... Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars > To date, no proof has been found of past or present life on Mars.
    - carabiner 6y ago
      Nope. Still remarkable that a president would comment officially on a NASA finding like that. It's the closest thing yet.
ZuLuuuuuu 6y ago
This is incredibly impressive. I can't imagine the complexity and the effort it took to make the sky crane maneuver at the end possible.
udev 6y ago
There is this emotion, not sure it has a name, which I am sure many engineers know -- when you prepare your system for a long time and then send it into the real world and watch it work... You can feel it in this video, e.g when you see the crane fly away after accomplishing the mission. If we don't have a name for this emotion yet, I hope the japanese or the germans invent one. :)
- XVII 6y ago
  I'll just invent one: 'Funktionsfähigkeitsdemonstrationseuphorie'
  - LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
    Schöpferstolz. Schaffensfreude.
- raldi 6y ago
  Now these points of data make a beautiful line And we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time
- mhh__ 6y ago
  Pride
- yazaddaruvala 6y ago
  I think its similar enough to "closure" to re-use that word.
- ctdonath 6y ago
  “It worked! On to the next task...”
- easton_s 6y ago
  It feels like watching your kids accomplishing something difficult on their own. The fear of mortality is loosened a bit.
- ranguna 6y ago
rx_tx 6y ago
One of the engineers said that the parachute's patterns was both for visually determining the orientation (with computer vision), but also hinted there was some secret message in it. (at 19:34 in the livestream)
- nsriv 6y ago
  The rover wheels on Curiosity had gaps so that the tire tracks left a pattern in morse code that spelled out JPL, so maybe something similar? They eliminated that on Perseverance with the wheel redesign.
  - rx_tx 6y ago
    Yeah that's what I think, but it could also encode something longer. I am not sure on the parachute what is a science feature and what is an easter egg.
- Wingman4l7 6y ago
  Someone figured it out: https://twitter.com/FrenchTech_paf/status/1363992051734478852/photo/1 https://twitter.com/FrenchTech_paf/status/136399205173447885... 10-bit encoding via the three rings of colored panels; spells out "DARE MIGHTY THINGS".
- yread 6y ago
  Here is the full explanation https://twitter.com/steltzner/status/1364076615932645379 https://twitter.com/steltzner/status/1364076615932645379
spookthesunset 6y ago
As it got closer to the ground, it seemed really hard to get a sense of scale with that downward camera. It felt like the ground just kind of "appeared" right before the sky crane did its thing. How big are the rocks under it? It felt like they were either big (1+ meter) or just little pebbles. I really couldn't tell. Either way, this is seriously the coolest video I think I've ever seen. I cannot wait for more.
- ckosidows 6y ago
  Agreed with both. I hope someone can eventually put an estimated 3D model of something familiar, like a person or a school bus or something, for scale in the image video. And this is one of the coolest videos I've ever seen. I had a huge smile watching all of it. I can't even fathom how elated the whole JPL team must have been as these videos came in.
- Trasmatta 6y ago
  At about 2:57 the operator says the rover is about 20 meters off the surface, if that helps at all. I agree it got really hard to get a sense of the scale once the thrusters started blowing up dust.
  - spookthesunset 6y ago
    I rewatched listening to all that and it helped but only in an abstract way. It's like there needs to be a penny in the shot or something to get a sense of scale.
    - ro2nie 6y ago
      No, not a penny. It needs a banana for scale
      - HarHarVeryFunny 6y ago
        In deep space the banana would be frozen rock solid and would likely shatter if dropped. So, it seems the sky crane lowers the rover, and the rover lowers the banana.
holoduke 6y ago
There have been made tremendous steps in simulation software. The fact that the crane mechanism has never been tested on earth besides simulations is incredible. Always wondered what software they use. Do they have a generic platform to run simulations on? Or is every mission written from scratch?
- 2sk21 6y ago
  Not quite, the sky crane method was also used for Curiosity rover back in 2012
geocrasher 6y ago
This may sound silly, but: The closest I've coming to building a "robot" was a simple little arduino kit. The kit was terrible, the parts defective, and you can imagine I was pretty sick of troubleshooting it after a time. These are things happening on my workbench with a small amount of automation code. I'd have been thrilled if it had just worked as designed. Now, take three robots. One is wheeled, one flies by rotors, and another is rocket powered. Put them on a rocket, fly to another planet, and land them autonomously without wrecking anything. As a hobbyist I'd be beyond myself to just do ONE of those. On Earth. Let alone millions of miles away on a distant planet. And to get video of it just days later, bounced across multiple orbiters? Mind blowing.
- GeorgeTirebiter 6y ago
  What if you had $ 2.7B? Would that help? (I'm not suggesting Percy is anything but a near miracle; only that they did have at least some non-trivial resources.)
  - andyzweb 6y ago
    Was that the budget for the whole thing? If that’s what it cost to put that thing up there why aren’t we doing this once a month.
    - divbzero 6y ago
      … or at least once every 26 months or so. [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Launch_windows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Launch_win... We sent 3 separate spacecraft to Mars during the most recent launch window. We’ll see how we do next time around.
    - nier 6y ago
      NASA’s budget is not what it used to be during the cold war and specifically during the race to the moon. The budget for 2020 was $22.6 billion. Source: https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasa-budget https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasa-budget
1-6 6y ago
"ready to begin seeking the signs of past life." This is a brilliant engineering feat but I don't agree with the premise of that statement. This is NASA's own mission statement: "The goal of the Mars Exploration Program is to explore Mars and to provide a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery through a carefully selected series of robotic orbiters, landers and mobile laboratories interconnected by a high-bandwidth Mars/Earth communications network."
- wobblykiwi 6y ago
  What you're saying isn't quite true. Perseverance's mission IS to find signs of past life. See: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/goals/ https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/goals/
- 93po 6y ago
  The latter sounds like politically correct wordiness to not piss off the large amount of the planet that believes in intelligent design
- sandos 6y ago
  Ive always wondered about this "obsession" with finding life specifically. For some reason I find it unlikely we will find life, and I'm probably wrong. But I also get the feeling from the missions that unless there have been life, there is no reason to go to Mars. I mean there are so many reasons to go there even if we never find signs of life.
mshachkov 6y ago
Anyone can point me to the place where i can find the original video files (that are received from the rover)?
joeyh 6y ago
This was recorded by a computer running Linux, using ffmpeg. Embedded Intel system with fairly stock cameras. "the first open source linux box running on the surface of Mars" "thank you to the open source community for allowing us to use your amazing software" Per their press conference today, in the Q&A section. https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4025 https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4025
- midasuni 6y ago
  30 years ago “ I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready” I think it’s more than a hobby now...
  - easton_s 6y ago
    I know Linux is way more then just one man, but holy hell what one person can inspire.
- ardy42 6y ago
  > Per their press conference today, in the Q&A section. https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4025 https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4025 What was the model? The recording was garbled, and all I could hear was "...we're using a commercial computer, an Intel ???? PC. It's running Linux...
  - GeorgeTirebiter 6y ago
    https://www.pcmag.com/news/linux-is-now-on-mars-thanks-to-nasas-perseverance-rover https://www.pcmag.com/news/linux-is-now-on-mars-thanks-to-na... talks about Ingenuity copter details.
  - joeyh 6y ago
    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-020-00765-9 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-020-00765-9 has details: > The DSU is an off-the-shelf computer-on-module (CoM) from CompuLab Ltd with an Intel Atom processor and solid-state memory. The DSU runs the Linux operating system, along with additional software to communicate with the EDLCAM sensors, perform the EDL data collection sequence, manage the data storage and compress the collected data files. The DSU uses a high-density connector to provide connectivity to the high-speed USB3, USB2, gigabit ethernet and SATA interfaces. > The main DSU is located inside the rover body. A second DSU, the descent stage DSU, is located on the descent stage. In both DSUs the CoM is connected to a custom electronics board that provides connectivity for all the USB devices. The two DSUs are almost identical to each other and communicate with each other through a gigabit ethernet link. The rover DSU includes a 480 GB solid-state flash memory drive (SSD) for data storage, provides a gigabit Ethernet link between both DSUs, and implements the high-speed serial communication protocol to communicate to the rover computer.
tppiotrowski 6y ago
Can someone comment on why this is the first time I'm seeing videos from Mars versus previous missions. Did the memory write speeds increase, more sensitive CCD sensors, easier to send data back to Earth? I'm sure there must be some technological reason this wasn't done before because it's simply stunning...
- 93po 6y ago
  There's a ton of media from previous mars missions. Can't comment on why you didn't see them
  - tppiotrowski 6y ago
    I'm curious about videos specifically. I've seen a lot of high-res images and animated GIF style videos but nothing like this.
- DataGata 6y ago
  One thing to consider is that NASA missions are basically always using older technology, because by the time the mission gets approved, designed, and built consumer/business tech has already moved past. Space worthiness ads more 'age' to the technology as well.
  - tppiotrowski 6y ago
    I remember when New Horizons flew by Pluto in 2015 taking pictures with a 1 MP camera. At that time I had an 8 MP camera on my phone, but remembered that in 2006 when New Horizons launched, the iPhone didn't even exist.
- ctdonath 6y ago
  The current scale of video availability is very recent. Dirt cheap tiny HD cameras and storage & fast reliable networking to match, are only a few years old. Put that in context of a complex system expected to work perfectly under extreme conditions millions of miles distant, with early designs starting years ago, and that’s why you’re only seeing such now.
jzer0cool 6y ago
Mars is dominated by linux machines, ai and machine learning. As I stared at the landing I thought what if it drops into the crater and cannot climb out? At the same time I was really hoping I would see also little antennas poking out from the ground underneath or little martians running around hiding from the new strange visitor. What's the first mission?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
jonplackett 6y ago
I'm now waiting for the complainers to be all like "But I wanted to see it in VR, this sucks"
- jamiek88 6y ago
  Well there is a 360 camera too! Not quite vr but it’s something!
interestica 6y ago
Observations Open source bits and shout out: - The rover has an Intel-based PC running Linux. - The video is compressed using FFmpeg. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4027 Images and Video and Data! - 30GB of data. 23 000 images - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=562 Cam Fail on Descent: - 1 of 3 cameras failed when the mortar/parachute fired. - Some other items were damaged/disrupted during the firing as well – not desired, but expected - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=615 Parachute + Secret Message: - When packed, the parachute has the same density “as oak”. - it trails at about 150 feet. - The parachute pattern detail is intentional – sections to assist tracking different portions, etc. - There appears to be some sort of secret message encoded in the parachute: “sometimes we leave messages in our work for others to find…give it a shot and show your work” - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=1174 - see also https://twitter.com/lqqkout/status/1363982243010473986 Mic Fail on Descent: - They did not get audio from the port-side EDL mic on descent due to a analog-to-digital comms malfunction - specifically stated that it was not a hardware issue. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=3518 Other Descent Things + Sky Crane: - The heatshield is aeodynamically stable and does not tumble/spin on ejection. - No plumes from the ‘sky crane’ because the exhaust products of hydrazine are hydrogen and nitrogen. - The only hint that the rockets are firing are the slight colour change due to the heat (pink tint). - The photos/videos are the first views of the sky crane in action because it’s not something that can be tested on earth. - The photos/videos from the sky crane looking down at the rover at transmitted to the rover via an ‘umbilical cable’ Comms and photo things: - The High-gain antenna has only now been deployed. That’s the one that allows the high speed 2mbps rover-to-orbiter link. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=2039 - The data rate changes depending on the different orbiter being used. - “return 500-900 megabits per pass” and 2-3 overflights per night. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=3928 - And some of the biggest data relays were via European/ESA Trace Gas orbiter. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4097 The pieces: - There’s a shot of all the pieces and their landing/crash sites as taken from orbit. Heat shield, perseverance, back shell, descent stage/sky crane, parachute. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=2251 Mic + Hardware things: - There are two mics. One captured some audio on the surface. A gust of wind. (more interesting to me was the hum of the rover). It would be cool if the audio from the mics could be used to pair with the panoramic view to create spatial audio. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=2333 - Because the EDL mic is ‘off-the-shelf’ it is expected to fail quickly in the Mars environment. They have no immediate plans to use it for any kind of diagnostics during its lifetime. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4215 Camera + Hardware things: - The cameras used are off-the-shelf commercial hardware with some modifications. Purchased from Point Grey Research (which was acquired by FLIR Systems). - Most interesting mod: they had to replace some materials that could off-gas in space/vacuum and potentially deposit on the detectors. With all that, these press conferences are so weird. They still use a lot of acronyms. The setup is strange when there's no actual audience in front of them. They don't actually answer the questions from the press sometimes. They attempt to describe aspects of videos/images ("on the right you can see an antenna") instead of using technology to actually show. It's not quite clear who the audience is here: they're combining questions from kids and the press. It would be helpful if they annotated images. It would also be helpful to place the questions on screen (who has asked them). But, still so damn exciting. //edit, formatting
DavidPeiffer 6y ago
I'd love to see this video with some real-time overlays. Landing spot identification with a 90% confidence zone, hazard identification, altitude, etc. I'm also curious how much hazard identification was done in real time versus a pre-programmed map.
soheil 6y ago
The way and the speed by which the sky crane moves away is just like any sci-fi movie, totally unreal [0] [0] https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg?t=188 https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg?t=188
- jamiek88 6y ago
  Looks like from terminator 2 or something similar. I remarked to my wife that it looked full on sci fi. Sky cranes on Mars, HD and 360video, microphones on an suv sized rover.... man... I love living in the future!
- skc 6y ago
  Yes! It looked exactly like a B-Grade sci-fi film shot. Beautiful. I'm now sitting here wondering where it decided to crash land.
soheil 6y ago
When the parachute deployed all of a sudden it felt like mars is not so alien anymore, there is wind pushing against the parachute you can see the curvature of mars, there is sun, dust and all... Love this video compared to images.
soheil 6y ago
Very surprised this is not trending on YT.
tus89 6y ago
I would have loved to see the upwards view of the delivery drone from the rover to see it control boosters slowing and controlling the descent. It's still an amazing progress from the original delivery mechanism (big bouncy airbags). Back then controlled drone technology was considered sci-fi...now anyone can have it in their backyard.
cambalache 6y ago
The most astounding (but logical) thing to me is that those guys are looking at that maneuver without being able to do anything to correct any error. Literally a recording from the past.
- DonHopkins 6y ago
  Watching history download in real time.
matt-attack 6y ago
I'm really surprised at how much dust was being kicked up despite the length of the sky crane. I thought the whole point of that was to reduce/minimize the dust that would get kicked up. I'd like to suggest that NASA use a longer cable next time :)
rsj_hn 6y ago
Kudos, NASA. This is why we love you.
mjgs 6y ago
Each time I watch one of these big space mission videos I forget about all the joy, happiness, jumping, clapping, screaming, hugging, high fives, and the rest of it after the main event. And every single time it’s awesome :)
rchoudhury 6y ago
I teared up quite unexpectedly as they confirmed touchdown with that "tango delta". Amazing!

507 points by jvanderbot 6y ago

Personally, I didn't work on this, but I'm completely amazed. To think Curiosity did this 8 years ago as well is kind of staggering to me.

interestica 6y ago

360 view on surface. Viewable in VR https://youtu.be/wE-aQO9XD1g https://youtu.be/wE-aQO9XD1g

somedude895 6y ago

This is incredible quality. What's the file size of the video and what path did the data take?

jvanderbot 6y ago
The briefing said they had downloaded ~20 GB of data over the last few days. I'm sure much of that was _not_ EDL data.
- interestica 6y ago
  30 GB of data and 23000 images. Crazy. https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=562 https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=562
cguess 6y ago
I believe the data is uplinked through orbiters than relayed back from there.
rtkwe 6y ago
It got sent back via orbiters ranging from the ESA's Trace Gas orbiter, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or Mars Odyssey. Through those they can get up to 2 megabits per second [0] back to earth but that depends a lot on the orbiter it's talking to at a given time. The TGO is doing a lot and is one of the early high speed relays for the data from Perseverance. [1] There's also direct links to and from Earth but they're significantly slower. [0] https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communications/ https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communicatio... [1] https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-mars-2020-perseverance-rover-is-about-to-land-on-the-red-planet-it-will-have-some-help-from-these-mars-orbiters/ https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-mars-2020-perseverance-rover-...
- donarb 6y ago
  The more impressive part is that the sky crane shot pictures, video and data and had to download everything to the rover before it was cut loose. As soon as the rover wheels touched ground, the tether was cut and the lander flew away.
  - rtkwe 6y ago
    That's relatively simple just wire them directly into the rover to start with so the data is always in the right place.
  - HarHarVeryFunny 6y ago
    I'd like to know how they cut/released the tether, and if there's any fallback in case 1st release attempt fails. The entire mission is fucked if the tether release failed, or if the sky crane tries to fly away while still tethered.
    - donarb 6y ago
      They use explosive bolts that attach the tether to the deck of the rover. They're almost 100% fool proof. Here's a Wikipedia entry, they're called pyrotechnic fasteners and NASA uses a lot of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrotechnic_fastener https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrotechnic_fastener
      - polishdude20 6y ago
        But the image of the cables show what looks to actually be a literal cut cable. Not just a connector being disconnected but a clean slice.
        snarf 6y ago
        From today's Reddit AMA with the NASA team, they use pyrotechnics to set off a guillotine like device to cut the cables. Possibly something like https://psemc.com/products/pyrotechnic-cable-cutter/ https://psemc.com/products/pyrotechnic-cable-cutter/ Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/lpzbzo/were_scientists_and_engineers_working_on_nasas/godvks8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/lpzbzo/were_scientist...

O5vYtytb 6y ago

I don't know why I'm surprised at the amount of footage and the quality, but I am. This is really setting a new bar for missions like this, similar to what SpaceX has done in recent years. Stuff like this has got to be huge for getting interest and excitement from the general public and especially kids.

krm01 6y ago
It would be great to see some startups work on interplanetary video streaming tech. If you're building an other video streaming service, stop what your doing, and give this a try. I know I know. Very, very hard to solve and all, and this is totally a fanboy speaking, but it would have been awesome if we could have seen this footage in (as close as possible to) real-time when the landing happened.
- djxfade 6y ago
  So, the minimum delay between Mars and Earth is around 11 minutes, usually higher. And the bandwidth is something like 60 MiB/Sol. This is just totally unrealistic with any known tech for the foreseeable future
  - apendleton 6y ago
    Current delay is ~11 minutes, but minimum is much lower (~4 minutes, per https://blogs.esa.int/mex/2012/08/05/time-delay-between-mars-and-earth/ https://blogs.esa.int/mex/2012/08/05/time-delay-between-mars... ). We were last at that closest point in October, and the various voyages (this one, UAE's Hope, China's Tianwen-1) were timed so the closest pint was during the transit; we're a bit past it now.
- giantrobot 6y ago
  Nothing about "interplanetary streaming" needs to be invented. The limiting factor is the size and power of the transmitter on Mars (or wherever). The MRO orbiter for instance is the highest bandwidth probe we've sent to Mars and it maxes out at about 4Mbps when Mars is closest to Earth. When Mars is farther it can only do about 500Kbps. That relatively prodigious rate requires the use of 34m receiving antennas on Earth. So if you wanted to stream video from a GoPro on a Mars orbiter you could do so with current technology, you'd just need to build some big-ass antennas on Earth and then build and launch the Mars orbiters. Besides being technically difficult (because rocket science) it would be really expensive.

netcraft 6y ago

So glad they've realized the value in allowing everyone to experience how hard these things are. So impressive, I can't wait to watch this video over and over. The inflation of the parachute is spectacular, and knowing how hard it is, and how hard it is to test on earth - its just incredible. And the skycrane was flawless - just so impressive how well it works. Too bad it flies off to crash and can't land gently somewhere to maybe be able to use it for its own purpose.

baggy_trough 6y ago
If there was mass available to add something to the sky crane, you'd be better off putting that thing on the rover, since the rover has the plutonium power pack. I do feel a bit sorry for the crane as well though :)
- spookthesunset 6y ago
  This is what I was thinking. That sky crane has to be as barebones as can possibly be made. Every single bit of mass on it is something that could be better used elseware. Tradeoff of course is if you skimp on the mass too much you'll get an unreliable sky crane and the whole thing is a dud.
  - jamiek88 6y ago
    Sky crane will be used for seismic measurements with another vehicle picking up the waves from it slamming into mars firma on the other side of the planet so some use of it at least!
midasuni 6y ago
SpaceX broadcasts really raised the bar on what the public expect from space, and with it brought a lot of excitement. Great that scientific program is following in those footsteps.
- systemvoltage 6y ago
  Ehh...to be fair, Space exploration has always been an excitement for public ever since the Apollo days. NASA's PR team has been stellar for over 50 years in inspiring people around the world. Indeed, SpaceX upped the game for live broadcast. Let's put it this way - if SpaceX didn't exist, I am sure Mars 2020 program would have had high resolution cameras and videos of the landing, along with all the excitement from the public. It's just inevitable as technology progresses. Keep in mind that social media wasn't a thing back then. NASA/JPL and the Perseverence program isn't following anyone's footsteps here.

bryan0 6y ago

One of the engineers does a great shot-by-shot commentary of this video about 15 minutes into their live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYQwuYZbA6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYQwuYZbA6o

davidg109 6y ago

After such a shitty 2020, this is just what we needed. Incredible.

aphextron 6y ago

As incredible as this footage is, it's even more mindblowing to realize we've been doing this for 50 years now. We know how to land on mars. Time to do it with people.

NikolaeVarius 6y ago
This method has been used twice, it is nowhere near human rated, hence why its called the 7 minutes of terror. For all the engineering, it has to be perfect or splat
rtkwe 6y ago
We know how to land relatively small things on Mars landing humans will be a much larger craft and because of that a harder task.
- yread 6y ago
  But you don't have to worry that much about kicking up a lot of dust (the self-loading meatbags on board can clean your solar panels) so you can just point your thrusters at the ground and play with the throttle a little
  - rtkwe 6y ago
    It's not just the landing, that's relatively simple and can be mostly done with bigger thrusters on the craft but you have to slow down a lot before you can safely. Right now that's done through a heat shield then a parachute and finally the actual propulsive landing of the SkyCrane. We've done some testing of inflatable shields for the first step but nothing practiced actually in the Martian atmosphere yet and parachutes aren't great for heavier things. You want to use the other two to slow down as much as possible so you're not hauling extra fuel all the way to Mars. Ideally you'd be using ISRU units to generate your return fuel too.
holoduke 6y ago
Whats the point of doing it with humans. Robots are getting better every year. Humans not really. Robots will most likely first build an settlement on mars before humans will arrive.

meepmorp 6y ago

I was really surprised at how fast the heat shield dropped away, and slightly disappointed that we didn't get to see it hit the ground.

jvanderbot 6y ago
HiRise captured the whole shebang: An image with the lander, heat shield, descent stage, and parachute. The descender is always a big black smear after these things, which is quite sad. I'm looking for the link, but the NASA TV feed had it.
- teraflop 6y ago
  Here you go: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/perseverance-and-mars-2020-spacecraft-components-on-the-surface https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/perseverance-and-mars...
- meepmorp 6y ago
  Well, there goes the rest of my afternoon. Edit: no video I can find; I'd just find satisfying to watch it hit the ground, in real time.
HenryBemis 6y ago
I was hoping for the same, but at 9.5km away, and with a decelerating speed of 150m/s we wouldn't see but only a pixel. I wonder if they have the time/it's in their plan to send the bot over to record where it landed, the state that it's in, etc. If they want to simulate assess the damage, it would be cheaper to make heat shield 50 of them on Earth and drop them from 10-15km. I assume that every minute is gold and they already got a X-days meter-by-meter plan on what to do with little room for free exploration.
- Nekhrimah 6y ago
  > I wonder if they have the time/it's in their plan to send [Perseverance] over to record where [the heat shield] landed I was thinking the same, but more for the fact that surely the impact has made a hole of some description that could be interesting to look into. Take advantage of the already expended energy to penetrate the surface layers.

aent 6y ago

Here's a recording of the martian wind from one of the rover microphones https://soundcloud.com/nasa/first-sounds-from-mars-filters-out-rover-self-noise/s-rnjGarHQjxB https://soundcloud.com/nasa/first-sounds-from-mars-filters-o...

aosaigh 6y ago

In case the other thread doesn't make the front page, they also added a microphone to this lander and managed to capture the sound of Mar's wind, which to me is almost more amazing: https://soundcloud.com/nasa/first-sounds-from-mars-filters-out-rover-self-noise https://soundcloud.com/nasa/first-sounds-from-mars-filters-o...

geocrasher 6y ago
And it's not a Rick Roll. Well done.
wycy 6y ago
Pretty cool, although it's so hard to really get a sense of sound of wind with a microphone. I guess the takeaway is that Mars is super quiet.
- jandrese 6y ago
  1% atmospheric pressure would do that. Sound won't travel very well through the Martian atmosphere.
  - wycy 6y ago
    Wow, very interesting. I had a pre-conceived notion that Martian atmospheric pressure was something like 20% of ours, but you're right, it's quite a bit lower than even that.
    - AnotherGoodName 6y ago
      If only. >The minimum safe lower limit for the partial pressures of oxygen in a gas mixture is 0.16 bars (16 kPa) absolute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_pressure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_pressure If it was 20% that would be survivable with just an oxygen mask fwiw. Humans can go down to 16% atm pressure safely if they breathe 100% oxygen. The rest of the body can easily handle the pressure difference (1 full atm of pressure is equivalent to being 10meters underwater as a guide, human orifices have no issue with it contrary to pop sci beliefs). So yes it's not 20% and it would be nice if it was.

tibbydudeza 6y ago

Just amazing.

albertzeyer 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars > To date, no proof has been found of past or present life on Mars. I wonder how long it takes until we get the first confirmation of some sort of life on Mars (e.g. something like bacteria or so). Is this realistic already in the coming days?

carabiner 6y ago
1996: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHhZQWAtWyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHhZQWAtWyQ
- albertzeyer 6y ago
  So far life on Mars was not really confirmed, right? I thought this is the main goal of this mission. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseverance_(rover) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseverance_(rover) > The rover's goals include looking for past Martian environments capable of supporting life, seeking out possible microbial life in those environments, ... Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars > To date, no proof has been found of past or present life on Mars.
  - carabiner 6y ago
    Nope. Still remarkable that a president would comment officially on a NASA finding like that. It's the closest thing yet.

ZuLuuuuuu 6y ago

This is incredibly impressive. I can't imagine the complexity and the effort it took to make the sky crane maneuver at the end possible.

udev 6y ago

There is this emotion, not sure it has a name, which I am sure many engineers know -- when you prepare your system for a long time and then send it into the real world and watch it work... You can feel it in this video, e.g when you see the crane fly away after accomplishing the mission. If we don't have a name for this emotion yet, I hope the japanese or the germans invent one. :)

XVII 6y ago
I'll just invent one: 'Funktionsfähigkeitsdemonstrationseuphorie'
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
  Schöpferstolz. Schaffensfreude.
raldi 6y ago
Now these points of data make a beautiful line And we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time
mhh__ 6y ago
Pride
yazaddaruvala 6y ago
I think its similar enough to "closure" to re-use that word.
ctdonath 6y ago
“It worked! On to the next task...”
easton_s 6y ago
It feels like watching your kids accomplishing something difficult on their own. The fear of mortality is loosened a bit.
ranguna 6y ago

rx_tx 6y ago

One of the engineers said that the parachute's patterns was both for visually determining the orientation (with computer vision), but also hinted there was some secret message in it. (at 19:34 in the livestream)

nsriv 6y ago
The rover wheels on Curiosity had gaps so that the tire tracks left a pattern in morse code that spelled out JPL, so maybe something similar? They eliminated that on Perseverance with the wheel redesign.
- rx_tx 6y ago
  Yeah that's what I think, but it could also encode something longer. I am not sure on the parachute what is a science feature and what is an easter egg.
Wingman4l7 6y ago
Someone figured it out: https://twitter.com/FrenchTech_paf/status/1363992051734478852/photo/1 https://twitter.com/FrenchTech_paf/status/136399205173447885... 10-bit encoding via the three rings of colored panels; spells out "DARE MIGHTY THINGS".
yread 6y ago
Here is the full explanation https://twitter.com/steltzner/status/1364076615932645379 https://twitter.com/steltzner/status/1364076615932645379

spookthesunset 6y ago

As it got closer to the ground, it seemed really hard to get a sense of scale with that downward camera. It felt like the ground just kind of "appeared" right before the sky crane did its thing. How big are the rocks under it? It felt like they were either big (1+ meter) or just little pebbles. I really couldn't tell. Either way, this is seriously the coolest video I think I've ever seen. I cannot wait for more.

ckosidows 6y ago
Agreed with both. I hope someone can eventually put an estimated 3D model of something familiar, like a person or a school bus or something, for scale in the image video. And this is one of the coolest videos I've ever seen. I had a huge smile watching all of it. I can't even fathom how elated the whole JPL team must have been as these videos came in.
Trasmatta 6y ago
At about 2:57 the operator says the rover is about 20 meters off the surface, if that helps at all. I agree it got really hard to get a sense of the scale once the thrusters started blowing up dust.
- spookthesunset 6y ago
  I rewatched listening to all that and it helped but only in an abstract way. It's like there needs to be a penny in the shot or something to get a sense of scale.
  - ro2nie 6y ago
    No, not a penny. It needs a banana for scale
    - HarHarVeryFunny 6y ago
      In deep space the banana would be frozen rock solid and would likely shatter if dropped. So, it seems the sky crane lowers the rover, and the rover lowers the banana.

holoduke 6y ago

There have been made tremendous steps in simulation software. The fact that the crane mechanism has never been tested on earth besides simulations is incredible. Always wondered what software they use. Do they have a generic platform to run simulations on? Or is every mission written from scratch?

2sk21 6y ago
Not quite, the sky crane method was also used for Curiosity rover back in 2012

geocrasher 6y ago

This may sound silly, but: The closest I've coming to building a "robot" was a simple little arduino kit. The kit was terrible, the parts defective, and you can imagine I was pretty sick of troubleshooting it after a time. These are things happening on my workbench with a small amount of automation code. I'd have been thrilled if it had just worked as designed. Now, take three robots. One is wheeled, one flies by rotors, and another is rocket powered. Put them on a rocket, fly to another planet, and land them autonomously without wrecking anything. As a hobbyist I'd be beyond myself to just do ONE of those. On Earth. Let alone millions of miles away on a distant planet. And to get video of it just days later, bounced across multiple orbiters? Mind blowing.

GeorgeTirebiter 6y ago
What if you had $ 2.7B? Would that help? (I'm not suggesting Percy is anything but a near miracle; only that they did have at least some non-trivial resources.)
- andyzweb 6y ago
  Was that the budget for the whole thing? If that’s what it cost to put that thing up there why aren’t we doing this once a month.
  - divbzero 6y ago
    … or at least once every 26 months or so. [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Launch_windows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Launch_win... We sent 3 separate spacecraft to Mars during the most recent launch window. We’ll see how we do next time around.
  - nier 6y ago
    NASA’s budget is not what it used to be during the cold war and specifically during the race to the moon. The budget for 2020 was $22.6 billion. Source: https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasa-budget https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasa-budget

1-6 6y ago

"ready to begin seeking the signs of past life." This is a brilliant engineering feat but I don't agree with the premise of that statement. This is NASA's own mission statement: "The goal of the Mars Exploration Program is to explore Mars and to provide a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery through a carefully selected series of robotic orbiters, landers and mobile laboratories interconnected by a high-bandwidth Mars/Earth communications network."

wobblykiwi 6y ago
What you're saying isn't quite true. Perseverance's mission IS to find signs of past life. See: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/goals/ https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/goals/
93po 6y ago
The latter sounds like politically correct wordiness to not piss off the large amount of the planet that believes in intelligent design
sandos 6y ago
Ive always wondered about this "obsession" with finding life specifically. For some reason I find it unlikely we will find life, and I'm probably wrong. But I also get the feeling from the missions that unless there have been life, there is no reason to go to Mars. I mean there are so many reasons to go there even if we never find signs of life.

mshachkov 6y ago

Anyone can point me to the place where i can find the original video files (that are received from the rover)?

joeyh 6y ago

This was recorded by a computer running Linux, using ffmpeg. Embedded Intel system with fairly stock cameras. "the first open source linux box running on the surface of Mars" "thank you to the open source community for allowing us to use your amazing software" Per their press conference today, in the Q&A section. https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4025 https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4025

midasuni 6y ago
30 years ago “ I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready” I think it’s more than a hobby now...
- easton_s 6y ago
  I know Linux is way more then just one man, but holy hell what one person can inspire.
ardy42 6y ago
> Per their press conference today, in the Q&A section. https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4025 https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4025 What was the model? The recording was garbled, and all I could hear was "...we're using a commercial computer, an Intel ???? PC. It's running Linux...
- GeorgeTirebiter 6y ago
  https://www.pcmag.com/news/linux-is-now-on-mars-thanks-to-nasas-perseverance-rover https://www.pcmag.com/news/linux-is-now-on-mars-thanks-to-na... talks about Ingenuity copter details.
- joeyh 6y ago
  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-020-00765-9 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-020-00765-9 has details: > The DSU is an off-the-shelf computer-on-module (CoM) from CompuLab Ltd with an Intel Atom processor and solid-state memory. The DSU runs the Linux operating system, along with additional software to communicate with the EDLCAM sensors, perform the EDL data collection sequence, manage the data storage and compress the collected data files. The DSU uses a high-density connector to provide connectivity to the high-speed USB3, USB2, gigabit ethernet and SATA interfaces. > The main DSU is located inside the rover body. A second DSU, the descent stage DSU, is located on the descent stage. In both DSUs the CoM is connected to a custom electronics board that provides connectivity for all the USB devices. The two DSUs are almost identical to each other and communicate with each other through a gigabit ethernet link. The rover DSU includes a 480 GB solid-state flash memory drive (SSD) for data storage, provides a gigabit Ethernet link between both DSUs, and implements the high-speed serial communication protocol to communicate to the rover computer.

tppiotrowski 6y ago

Can someone comment on why this is the first time I'm seeing videos from Mars versus previous missions. Did the memory write speeds increase, more sensitive CCD sensors, easier to send data back to Earth? I'm sure there must be some technological reason this wasn't done before because it's simply stunning...

93po 6y ago
There's a ton of media from previous mars missions. Can't comment on why you didn't see them
- tppiotrowski 6y ago
  I'm curious about videos specifically. I've seen a lot of high-res images and animated GIF style videos but nothing like this.
DataGata 6y ago
One thing to consider is that NASA missions are basically always using older technology, because by the time the mission gets approved, designed, and built consumer/business tech has already moved past. Space worthiness ads more 'age' to the technology as well.
- tppiotrowski 6y ago
  I remember when New Horizons flew by Pluto in 2015 taking pictures with a 1 MP camera. At that time I had an 8 MP camera on my phone, but remembered that in 2006 when New Horizons launched, the iPhone didn't even exist.
ctdonath 6y ago
The current scale of video availability is very recent. Dirt cheap tiny HD cameras and storage & fast reliable networking to match, are only a few years old. Put that in context of a complex system expected to work perfectly under extreme conditions millions of miles distant, with early designs starting years ago, and that’s why you’re only seeing such now.

jzer0cool 6y ago

Mars is dominated by linux machines, ai and machine learning. As I stared at the landing I thought what if it drops into the crater and cannot climb out? At the same time I was really hoping I would see also little antennas poking out from the ground underneath or little martians running around hiding from the new strange visitor. What's the first mission?

deleted 6y ago
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jonplackett 6y ago

I'm now waiting for the complainers to be all like "But I wanted to see it in VR, this sucks"

jamiek88 6y ago
Well there is a 360 camera too! Not quite vr but it’s something!

interestica 6y ago

Observations Open source bits and shout out: - The rover has an Intel-based PC running Linux. - The video is compressed using FFmpeg. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4027 Images and Video and Data! - 30GB of data. 23 000 images - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=562 Cam Fail on Descent: - 1 of 3 cameras failed when the mortar/parachute fired. - Some other items were damaged/disrupted during the firing as well – not desired, but expected - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=615 Parachute + Secret Message: - When packed, the parachute has the same density “as oak”. - it trails at about 150 feet. - The parachute pattern detail is intentional – sections to assist tracking different portions, etc. - There appears to be some sort of secret message encoded in the parachute: “sometimes we leave messages in our work for others to find…give it a shot and show your work” - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=1174 - see also https://twitter.com/lqqkout/status/1363982243010473986 Mic Fail on Descent: - They did not get audio from the port-side EDL mic on descent due to a analog-to-digital comms malfunction - specifically stated that it was not a hardware issue. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=3518 Other Descent Things + Sky Crane: - The heatshield is aeodynamically stable and does not tumble/spin on ejection. - No plumes from the ‘sky crane’ because the exhaust products of hydrazine are hydrogen and nitrogen. - The only hint that the rockets are firing are the slight colour change due to the heat (pink tint). - The photos/videos are the first views of the sky crane in action because it’s not something that can be tested on earth. - The photos/videos from the sky crane looking down at the rover at transmitted to the rover via an ‘umbilical cable’ Comms and photo things: - The High-gain antenna has only now been deployed. That’s the one that allows the high speed 2mbps rover-to-orbiter link. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=2039 - The data rate changes depending on the different orbiter being used. - “return 500-900 megabits per pass” and 2-3 overflights per night. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=3928 - And some of the biggest data relays were via European/ESA Trace Gas orbiter. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4097 The pieces: - There’s a shot of all the pieces and their landing/crash sites as taken from orbit. Heat shield, perseverance, back shell, descent stage/sky crane, parachute. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=2251 Mic + Hardware things: - There are two mics. One captured some audio on the surface. A gust of wind. (more interesting to me was the hum of the rover). It would be cool if the audio from the mics could be used to pair with the panoramic view to create spatial audio. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=2333 - Because the EDL mic is ‘off-the-shelf’ it is expected to fail quickly in the Mars environment. They have no immediate plans to use it for any kind of diagnostics during its lifetime. - https://youtu.be/gYQwuYZbA6o?t=4215 Camera + Hardware things: - The cameras used are off-the-shelf commercial hardware with some modifications. Purchased from Point Grey Research (which was acquired by FLIR Systems). - Most interesting mod: they had to replace some materials that could off-gas in space/vacuum and potentially deposit on the detectors. With all that, these press conferences are so weird. They still use a lot of acronyms. The setup is strange when there's no actual audience in front of them. They don't actually answer the questions from the press sometimes. They attempt to describe aspects of videos/images ("on the right you can see an antenna") instead of using technology to actually show. It's not quite clear who the audience is here: they're combining questions from kids and the press. It would be helpful if they annotated images. It would also be helpful to place the questions on screen (who has asked them). But, still so damn exciting. //edit, formatting

DavidPeiffer 6y ago

I'd love to see this video with some real-time overlays. Landing spot identification with a 90% confidence zone, hazard identification, altitude, etc. I'm also curious how much hazard identification was done in real time versus a pre-programmed map.

soheil 6y ago

The way and the speed by which the sky crane moves away is just like any sci-fi movie, totally unreal [0] [0] https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg?t=188 https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg?t=188

jamiek88 6y ago
Looks like from terminator 2 or something similar. I remarked to my wife that it looked full on sci fi. Sky cranes on Mars, HD and 360video, microphones on an suv sized rover.... man... I love living in the future!
skc 6y ago
Yes! It looked exactly like a B-Grade sci-fi film shot. Beautiful. I'm now sitting here wondering where it decided to crash land.

soheil 6y ago

When the parachute deployed all of a sudden it felt like mars is not so alien anymore, there is wind pushing against the parachute you can see the curvature of mars, there is sun, dust and all... Love this video compared to images.

soheil 6y ago

Very surprised this is not trending on YT.

tus89 6y ago

I would have loved to see the upwards view of the delivery drone from the rover to see it control boosters slowing and controlling the descent. It's still an amazing progress from the original delivery mechanism (big bouncy airbags). Back then controlled drone technology was considered sci-fi...now anyone can have it in their backyard.

cambalache 6y ago

The most astounding (but logical) thing to me is that those guys are looking at that maneuver without being able to do anything to correct any error. Literally a recording from the past.

DonHopkins 6y ago
Watching history download in real time.

matt-attack 6y ago

I'm really surprised at how much dust was being kicked up despite the length of the sky crane. I thought the whole point of that was to reduce/minimize the dust that would get kicked up. I'd like to suggest that NASA use a longer cable next time :)

rsj_hn 6y ago

Kudos, NASA. This is why we love you.

mjgs 6y ago

Each time I watch one of these big space mission videos I forget about all the joy, happiness, jumping, clapping, screaming, hugging, high fives, and the rest of it after the main event. And every single time it’s awesome :)

rchoudhury 6y ago

I teared up quite unexpectedly as they confirmed touchdown with that "tango delta". Amazing!