NASA continues its work on sending vehicles to Mars without slowing down. The spacecraft, which will travel to the red planet, is preparing for the journey on Earth.
NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft has been subjected to rigorous tests for the past two months. The purpose of this is to make sure that the vehicle will complete its journey to Mars without any problems. The vehicle successfully passed the acoustic and thermal vacuum tests during the studies carried out in the Jet Launch Laboratory of the institution.
For the acoustic test, the vehicle was exposed to sound bursts of 150 decibels. The noise of the roar of the engine of a jet taking off right next to you is about 150 decibels. The vehicle was exposed to this sound in studies simulating the moment of take-off.
After the sonic boom tests were repeated six times, the vehicle was subjected to another test simulating the vacuum effect in space. The vehicle, which was taken to the Space Simulation Facility, remained suspended in the air.
David Gruel, director of assembly, testing and launch, says they’ve ‘taken the void’ in the vacuum chamber here. The vacuum circle creates a vacuum effect similar to the space environment. While some of the vehicle is cooled to -129 degrees in the circle, some of it is exposed to the heat and radiation from the giant spotlights. Because there is no atmosphere in space, which means that there is nothing to protect it from radiation.
The Mars 2020 rover is expected to launch in July 2020 and arrive at the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. Mars 2020 will be the latest addition to NASA’s list of instruments on the red planet. Currently, the Curiosity rover and the InSight spacecraft continue to work on Mars.