Mission control plus5/9/2023 ![]() If the parachute doesn't work, it's completely game over.” “If there's any tiny hole, tiny nick, the whole thing disintegrates and you're left pummeling to the ground in a matter of seconds after that. “The parachute is one of the most important single point failures for entry, descent and landing, because there's only one,” Mohan explained. With an incoming speed of 12,000 miles per hour being slowed down to a leisurely 1,000 miles per hour by Mars’ thin atmosphere, there was only one thing that stood between success and a devastating crash: a parachute. A jittery kind of buzz emanated from the team. The broadcast feed bounced between different team members as more information trickled in. “There were a few key moments where I had this, 'Oh my god we're actually doing this' type of feeling.” “In the moment it was kind of weird,” said Mohan. Not even 24 hours after the rover safely landed, it was all still slowly sinking in for Mohan, the mission's guidance and controls operations lead. It actually happened to something that we built.” “I just said that! But it's real, it's not a movie, it was real. “I just had this momentary lapse into science fiction where you hear them talking about these in rockets in Starship Enterprise,” said Mohan. ![]() ![]() When Perseverance was one minute away from preparing for its Mars entry all on its own, Mohan had a surreal thought. Throughout it all, Mohan gave a play-by-play account. The significance of the moment and uncertainty of its outcome was intoxicating. The white-hot, super-fast, and incredibly precise entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence took a terrifying seven minutes - plus mission control was 11 minutes behind the rover's moves because Mars is 100 million miles away. Millions of people watched on their computers, phones, and television screens as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California monitored the final, harrowing leg of the spacecraft’s journey. It felt like science fiction to Swati Mohan, who managed the rover's descent and kept the world updated on the spacecraft's status. As Perseverance careened toward Mars Thursday, the live broadcast from inside mission control oozed tension.
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