February 18, 2021 • 35 mins
It's all about Mars and the Perseverance Rover on Talk Description to Me this week. To enhance the commentary and resources that come directly from NASA, Christine and JJ describe the look of mission hardware, discuss the compelling visuals of the Martian landscape and landing site, and break down NASA’s cinematic representation of a perfect entry, descent, and landing.
For more information, including details on the rover's onboard microphones, check out the mission's official website: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
JJ Hunt (00:04):
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ
Hunt.
Christine Malec (00:29):
Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt (00:30):
And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description Me with the
visuals of current events andthe world around us get
hashed-out in description richconversations.
Christine Malec (00:47):
If you like me, are a space geek, February 18th
2021, big historic day, the NASAMars Perseverance rover is going
to be landing. And there's lotsof coverage and information and
excitement and enthusiasm aboutthis. And NASA has its own
(01:12):
website crammed full ofresources. And some of them are
accessible, some of them arenot. But NASA definitely has its
own context for covering theevent. And so what we want to do
today is not to try to reproducethat or even to talk alongside
(01:36):
that what we want to do is givethe background so that all of
those things will make a lotmore sense, after you've
listened to, to our episodetoday if you're someone who's
blind or low vision. And sowe're going to start by talking
about what some of the thingsinvolve look like. And then
(01:59):
we're going to use some ofNASA's resources to walk through
the process. And so, JJ, whydon't we start with the vehicle
itself? What can you tell usabout what that looks like?
JJ Hunt (02:13):
So the Perseverance rover is based on the Curiosity
Rover's configuration. So ifyou're familiar with curiosity,
it's quite similar. This roveris bigger. So perseverance is
about 10 feet long, notincluding the arm, about nine
feet wide and about seven feettall. So it's the physical size
(02:35):
of a big car, but it'srelatively light, only 2260
pounds. So it's actually aboutthe weight of a compact car. So
it's relatively light for itssize. And NASA's website has
this amazing 3d image of therover so you can flip it and
turn it and zoom in and zoomout. So I was able to kind of
(02:58):
really get into the nooks andcrannies to to explore this
thing. It's a pretty cool littlevehicle. So the rover has a boxy
rectangular body. I've seen itpainted white, but some images
seem to show it as an unpaintedaluminum body. And it's this
body is like a platform. Sopicture, like a family sized
(03:21):
cereal box, lying on its front,right? So it's wider than it is
tall. It's it's boxy and like aplatform. And it's of course,
covered with doodads anddoohickeys, which are, of
course, the official NASA termsfor all the technology.
Christine Malec (03:39):
Stop overwhelming us with this
technical language. It's verydaunting. We've already lost
half the listeners already,because you've just over spoken.
JJ Hunt (03:48):
Ha ha! Oh my god, I can't get on board with the
doohickeys.
Christine Malec (03:52):
Ha ha.
JJ Hunt (03:53):
So it's like a platform for all of the tech. And then
there's another box. Kind of ashorter, more square box that's
sticking up off of the back ofthe main platform, the main body
at a 45 degree angle. This isthe power source. And this box
is open on the top and bottom.
And what it reveals is there's acylindrical fan inside. So this
(04:15):
is the power source at the backat the front of the rover. So
this would be the front rightlike the passenger side for an
American or Canadian car.
There's a mast and it sticksstraight up from the top of the
body. And on top of the mast isa series of cameras in a box
(04:40):
that looks something like a shoebox with the wide side facing
forwards at the front. So righton say this was the grille of a
car, the front of the car or thefront of the of the body.
There's a folded arm, and thisarm can kind of pull in and bend
and tuck right in again. Thefront of the rover. And on the
(05:03):
the what would be the hand, thethere is a drill on the end of
it. And that drill when the armis folded in, it sits on what
would be the driver's side whenit's not extended. There are
three wheels on each side of thevehicle. It's an ingenious,
intriguing balancing suspensionsystem. So three wheels on each
(05:27):
side. And you might expect eachwheel to be connected to the
body of the vehicle in the waythat most cars are like that,
right, you've got two wheels atthe front, two wheels at the
back on a car, and they areconnected to the body. But
that's not the way these wheelsare connected here. The three
wheels on one side are eachconnected to each other using
(05:49):
suspension tubes that areflexible and have joints in them
so that they each wheel can moveindependently. So those
connected units of three areonly attached to the body with
one joint. So on each side,three wheels on each side, those
suspension systems are connectedon one joint per side. And they
(06:11):
call this a rocker bogiesuspension system because it can
tip back and forth like a teetertotter, as the wheels are moving
it along. Because it's onlyconnected at one pivot point.
The tires themselves, they looklike they've got thin rubber
treads around like barrel shapedwheels. So very wide wheels with
(06:34):
open spokes. But in fact,there's no rubber involved. The
wheels are a thin machinedaluminum that are painted black,
and they're only as thick asseven sheets of paper. And when
the aluminum is that thin, itbecomes as flexible as rubber.
So it's got a bit of a spring toit. But it's much more durable
(06:57):
than rubber would be. And thesethis the rover is six wheel
drive. So all six wheels canspin independently. And with
that means you can spin on allfour corners, you can literally
spin on the spot. So let's breakdown some of the specifics that
we just talked about. So likethe arm, for example, the arm at
(07:18):
the front of the vehicle, it canextend up to about seven feet.
And it has a shoulder joint nearthe near the vehicle. It's got
an elbow joint in the middle,and a wrist joint near the tools
at the at the hand. And the handis known as either the hand or
the turret. And my understandingis that NASA actually refers to
these as the shoulder joint, theelbow joint and the wrist joint.
(07:40):
And what that configurationdoes, as you know your arm can
do, you can do all kinds ofthings you can reach up, you can
go to the side, you can twistand turn. So it's a very
maneuverable series of joints.
And then the device that's onthat that's the hand of the
turret has sensors, it hascameras, there's a drill here
looks a bit like a if you'reinto tools, it's like a router.
(08:04):
It's got a casing and there's adrill in the middle it can
switch drill bits and then drillinto the ground and get core
samples. A major part of thisentire mission is the ability to
get core samples. Then there'sthe mast that we talked about.
The mast elevates the camerasystem to provide a human scale
(08:26):
perspective. So it's about sevenfeet tall. It also interestingly
gives the rover a little bit ofa humanoid look because of this
boxy head. There's a single lensto one side, a big large lens.
That's a laser micro imager, andit can identify chemical
(08:48):
composition of rock and soilfrom a distance. And then below
that, there are two side by sidelenses that are smaller, and
they've got boxy black frames.
So it really looks like thickrimmed eyeglasses. These are the
mastcam Z's or the mastcam zeds.
And these two cameras arezoomable panoramic cameras that
(09:12):
can take 3d images. So the zoomon this is apparently
incredible. It can spotsomething as the size of a house
fly from 350 feet away.
Christine Malec (09:26):
Tee hee!
JJ Hunt (09:26):
So that's the length of a soccer field. And it can
create 3d images, panoramicimages, very, very cool. And
then the way this thing moves,so the way the rover moves, it's
very, very slow. Like it crawlsalong at something like a few
centimeters per second. And thesuspension setup means that the
(09:48):
tires can roll over rocks or dipinto small holes independently
and keep the main body level. Soif you want to bit of help kind
of conjuring that movement, justtake your arms, put them at your
sides with bent elbows, forearmsparallel with the floor. So kind
(10:09):
of like you're sitting in a inan arm chair and your arms are
resting on the arms of an armchair. And now very gently,
quite calmly, start to move yourarms up and down a little bit.
You bend your wrists, bend yourelbows, shrug your shoulders,
and they don't have to be movingtogether, they can move
(10:30):
independently. So each arm eachjoint very slowly rolling up and
down, moving independently, butyour body in the middle remains
stable. And that's kind of howthe rover looks when it's
moving. With these slight rollsup and down as the tires, each
(10:51):
individual tire rolls over arock or dips into a hole in the
body in the middle is remainingstable. That's how this rover
looks as it's slowly movingalong.
Christine Malec (11:04):
So that's just the outside. So there's other
things inside too!
JJ Hunt (11:10):
Yeah, so tucked away in this rover is a helicopter;
Ingenuity. The name of it is theIngenuity helicopter. This is
the first aircraft on Mars. Andit's little, it's smaller. It's
a little drone, basically. Idon't know exactly how it gets
(11:30):
unpacked, I haven't seen anyimages of how it gets unpacked.
But they've got test footage,and they've got animations on
their website, NASA shows thelook of it once it's assembled
and ready to go. So the needsfor this helicopter, in order to
get a helicopter moving on Mars,you need a very light vehicle
(11:52):
and rotors that spin very, very,very fast. So the rotors on this
helicopter on ingenuity, theyspin at like 2 to 3000
revolutions per minute. Mosthelicopters on Earth, their main
rotor spins at about 450 to 500revolutions per minute. So it's
(12:12):
a very fast.
Christine Malec (12:12):
Wow!
JJ Hunt (12:13):
And the vehicle has to be fully autonomous during its
flight. So all of the computerequipment that is on board has
to be really light, and it's gotto be able to generate a lot of
power. And it has to be smart,it has to be able to fly, you
know, on its own. And the planis to fly this helicopter at
(12:36):
about three to five meters high,a three to five meters off the
surface and travel horizontallyat only a few meters per second.
Maybe they'll go as far as 50 to70 meters. If that goes well,
maybe they'll they'll you know,they'll go further and then come
back. It's really amazing, Ithink mostly they're going to be
taking some pictures and testingthe the technology. But if it
(13:00):
goes well the the missions forthis type of helicopter will be
expanded. So the look of thehelicopter, of ingenuity; The
body really looks like a boxmade of tin foil. Just a very
simple box made of tin foil.
Rising up from that box in thecenter is a mast. And it has two
stacked horizontal propellers.
(13:24):
And each blade is a twin blade,meaning the mast is in the
center and there's one blade onone side and one blade on the
other. And there are two ofthose one on top of the other
and they spin in oppositedirections. And then above the
propellers on the top of themast is what looks like a flat
solar panel. And there's alittle short wire antenna that
(13:47):
sticks up from that solar panel.
It's a you know, just verystraight stiff wire and there
are a couple little zigzags init. I'm sure those zigzags have
some kind of function, but forme, it just adds personality.
It's really cute. Heh heh.
Christine Malec (14:02):
Ha ha ha!
JJ Hunt (14:02):
So a little antenna coming up the top. The
helicopter stands on four legs.
And these four legs extend outfrom the top corners of the tin
foil box at about a 45 degreeangle. And they look a bit like
golf clubs with the heads as thefeet that are standing on the
ground. And then they the shaftscome back up toward toward this
(14:25):
tin foil box and the spread ofthe feet and the length of the
propeller blades. They're verysimilar there you know that that
that's more or less thefootprint that it's taking up is
the same as the space that'srequired for the rotors to spin
around. And that's thehelicopter. It's like a little
drone. It's really cool.
Christine Malec (14:48):
If you're a science fiction fan, you've
probably read books set on Marsand I actually just did a reread
of the Martian by Andy Weir. Andso I feel like I was just there.
I totally recommend it, amazingbook. But I feel like it would
be really nice to talk about thelandscape or the view of the
(15:09):
landing site. Can we do that?
JJ Hunt (15:11):
Yeah, so there's some really interesting images coming
in of Mars right now. Mars isthe hotspot right now. There are
two or three other crafts thatare orbiting Mars right now
sending back amazing pictures.
So the images of Mars itselfhave never been better, they've
never been clearer. So Marsreally does look red. Now not a
(15:32):
solid red, right? I've got acouple of images here that more
or less fill the screen of mylaptop. If this was an object
sitting in your hand, it wouldbe somewhere between the size of
a grapefruit and the size of acantaloupe. So at that distance,
at that perspective, Mars isreddish in color, but like a
(15:53):
coppery color of red, like abrick red. And even from this
distance, it looks dusty,there's a dull quality to the
color. And it's mottled. So it'snot a solid ball of uniform
color. It is mottled; someplaces are darker, some places
are lighter. And it looks kindalike a bowling ball! With
(16:18):
something like the planet Earth,which is of course, that's what
everything is compared to;Earth, with us being Earthlings
and all! We've got continents,we've got water, we've got
cloud, we've got deserts, we'vegot forests. There's all sorts
of color variation. There's allsorts of land shape variation.
Not as much with Mars, it'suniformly desert, all surfaces.
(16:43):
There are canyons, there areplanetary scars, there are there
are rings (which are craters),there are volcanoes, there are
cracks and rents in the surface.
(17:03):
And some of those areas arequite dark. But it's still all
desert. It's all this dustycolor of coppery red. And then
when you get closer to thelanding site, the landing site
is Jezero crater. And this is acrater that once held a lake.
(17:24):
That's why they're going there.
And I've seen some concept art[artist's interpretatins] of the
lake as well as some satelliteimages. And in the concept art
[artist's interpretations] theyshow this this crater filled
with water, it's a lake that ishemmed in by the raised lip of
the crater. And there are twowinding rivers or streams that
are connected to the main cratertoward the distant like there,
(17:47):
there are marshy areas orsmaller bodies of water at the
far ends of these winding riversor streams that lead to and away
from the main lake. So there'san inflow channel, at we'll call
it 12 o'clock. And then there'san outflow channel at four
o'clock. And you can see thatboth in the concept art - the
(18:10):
artist's interpretation. As wellas in satellite images, you can
still see the dry channels thatwould be coming in at 12 o'clock
and going out at four o'clock.
And there's a Delta deposit atthe mouth of the inflow channel.
Christine Malec (18:30):
Gasp!
JJ Hunt (18:31):
So this is a land form where sediment has been
deposited by moving water as itarrives at this larger body of
water. And this is the place tolive if you're a micro organism.
That's why Jezero crater is theplace where they want to land
because they've got access tothis delta.
Christine Malec (18:52):
Oh my god, you got me with the delta. So when
you're looking at the image thatis not the the artist's
conception but the actual image.
Does your eye see Lake, River,Delta?
JJ Hunt (19:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially once you know what'sthere. If you see this image,
and there's a caption at thebottom that tells you, that
gives you some scientificinformation, informs you that
this is a picture of a dry lakebed with an inflow and outflow
it's clear as day. You can seethe channel and you can see
(19:27):
where there would have been amarshy area, and then when you
zoom in closer you can see thisdelta deposit. They highlighted
it in some of their images, buteven without highlighting it,
you can see that there'ssomething there. That this
deposit is different. Thetexture appears different, the
topography of the Delta appearsdifferent than the rest of the
(19:51):
inside of this crater which isrelatively flat and smooth.
Christine Malec (19:58):
I have goosebumps! So I know that I'm a
bit more like excitable aboutthis than you. But does it
affect you to look at that?
Because I know you're not a bigscience fiction or space geek.
But when you look at it, you seethat it was land, do you see
that it used to be somethingelse it does that have an
emotional impact on you? Or isit just scientifically
interesting?
JJ Hunt (20:20):
For me, it definitely does. When you you know, when
you look at the images like someof the images I first described
of the planet, and I say thereare rents and there are cracks,
and there are creases, and thereare these pock marks on it. You
know, that's interesting. Whenyou take a moment, and you say
yeah, but that crack, that wasfrom an earthquake! Oh,
(20:43):
earthquakes, I know those! Wehave those. That's real, that's
tangible. And that winding linethat's a little bit pale, that
looks like a thin scar runningthrough a desert area. Oh, wait
a minute; that's a that's a dryriverbed, or maybe it's a
canyon, depending on how big itis. Oh, wait a minute, we have
(21:04):
those on earth! And so suddenly,when I when I make those visuals
real, when I compare them towhat I know, thaings that are
tangible, that are terrestrial,to me, it tells a story of a
place that has changed, that hasevolved over time, that has
(21:24):
become this red ball in the skythat is a place that science
fiction writers will turn thatinto a home. But it's the fact
that it's real, tangible, it haschanged. What is the history?
Christine Malec (21:44):
Yup.
JJ Hunt (21:44):
Every one of these marks has a history to it. What
is the history of all of that?
That's what gets me.
Christine Malec (21:50):
NASA prepared a video of the so-called seven
minutes of terror! We thought wewould talk about it at our
leisure. So NASA, again,obviously has their own ways of
covering this, and again, ourintent is to give give some
background and filler that as anon sighted person you wouldn't
(22:10):
have. So we thought we wouldwalk through the NASA construct
of the seven minutes of terror.
So lay it on us, JJ.
JJ Hunt (22:17):
Yeah. So what what they did was they they condensed it
into three minutes; a threeminute computer animated video
that showed the planned landingfor perseverance. And so this is
a very cinematic take on thislanding. They change camera
angles, so to speak, they givedifferent perspectives from the
(22:38):
spacecraft and from the ground.
And it's very dramatic. This isthe landing as it would be seen
if you had a professional filmcrew that had cameras floating
in space and on the ground. Thisis what they would hopefully
film as the landing craft wascoming on. So I'm just gonna,
I'll give kind of a summarydescription. I think this is the
(23:01):
clearest visual that we'relikely to get of this landing.
So there are five key componentsof the entry descent and landing
phase. There's the cruise stage,the back shell, the descent
stage, the perseverance rover,and then the heat shield. And
now the two stages, the cruisestage and the descent stage, the
(23:24):
stages can be a littleconfusing, because the word
"stage" I think, can mean boththe phase but it's also the
physical stage, the platformthat is enabling this moment,
right? So as the cruiseconfiguration, which is what
it's in right now, as the cruiseconfiguration approaches Mars,
(23:46):
the spacecraft resembles a squatspinning top with a rounded tip
and a capped ring on top. Thecapped ring that's on the top,
that's the cruise stage. It'sgot a flat top covered in solar
panels, and then the underside(which is protected by the ring)
(24:07):
is packed with electronics andwhat looks like wires inside
rigid copper pipes. That's theunderside of the cruise stage.
And as the spacecraft approachesMars it is released; separated.
So the spinning top continuesthe descent on its own, and the
(24:27):
cruise stage fades away. At thispoint, the outside of the craft
is really just two components,the back shell and the heat
shield. And together that'sknown as the aero shell. And
again, it looks more or lesslike a spinning top with a with
a smooth, pointed tip. So thatsmooth tip, the rounded point,
(24:50):
the rounded tip, that's the heatshield. It's gold in color and
it kind of looks a bit likeCaptain America's shield, but
it's got a little bit more of aconical shape. And then the back
shell behind it is also conical,but it's a little bit taller.
Okay, that's the aero shell.
(25:14):
The heat shield cuts through theatmosphere, so the Areoshell
goes toward the planet heatshield first. And as it cuts
through the atmosphere, smallbursts of [what looks like]
steam begin to puff out of theback shell, these are little
jets that are helping tomaintain the course. So they go
PFFFT PFFFT! And that'll helpsteer and keep the heat shield
(25:38):
pointed into the atmosphere. Inthe NASA animated video you get
views from the surface of Marsas this streak of orange flame,
like a comet, cuts across thedusty yellow sky that's above
this desert planet. There aredistant mountains in the
(26:00):
background and you see whatlooks like a streaking comet.
That's, that's the aero shell,that's this spacecraft coming
in. At this point, we then cutback to of a close up of of the
aero shell. And what looks likewhite hot flames are whipping
(26:20):
past the aero shell. It lookslike they're emanating from the
rounded tip of the heat shield.
And of course what this is, isthe heat shield dissipating the
energy that's caused by thefriction of the spacecraft
cutting through the atmosphere.
Then the video gives us a littleglimpse inside this shell that's
(26:42):
around the important stuff. Thisis where the rover is. And
inside the rover is thehelicopter. So we get just a
little glimpse inside, at thistucked-in rover. The wheels are
kind of tucked up and folded up.
And it's rumbling as thespacecarft goes through the
atmosphere. And as we get closerto the planet, we pass few, just
(27:03):
a very few wispy clouds. Andthen the topography of the
planet's surface becomes clear.
And we see there's a crater ringin the distance in front of us.
And we're getting closer andcloser to the surface of Mars.
Now, there's a nub at the top ofthe back shield. At the top of
(27:26):
this conical back shield, andfrom that nub a parachute on a
very long cable suddenlyejected. It shoots up and it
opens up. The chute opens andimmediately the speed slows
dramatically. This chute thatopens up is round. It's mostly
white, there's orange trim, itlooks kind of like a knit cap
(27:48):
like a toque or a beanie. And weget an overhead view of this
tiny white dot, this parachute,dangling a cord and the rest of
the back shield. That's hangingdown from it, zipping across the
surface of this sandy planet.
That's from this overhead view.
(28:08):
And then the heat shieldseparates, it drops away toward
the surface. And inside, you nowhave the exposed rover. So the
rover that's still inside theback shell is exposed to the
air. And apparently at thispoint, the rover is going to
start taking pictures. It'sgonna start taking images of the
(28:29):
surface. And the rover itselfwill use those pictures to
determine where it's safe toland. This will allow the
vehicle to land near interestingthings but not on top of
dangerous things. So momentsafter the heat shield drops away
the images have been taken bythe rover, the descent stage
(28:50):
inside the back shield dropsdown. And the descent stage is
both a name for this stage whenit's descending further, and the
stage as a literal platform. Andnow everything is exposed.
There's no casing on anything.
You have the rover tucked intothe descent stage, and in this
configuration, it's kind of Puckshaped. The descent stage looks
(29:13):
a little bit like a roundedrobotic turtle shell with four
landing jets instead of legs,and then the rover is tucked
underneath it. So one way toimagine this is imagine getting
on your hands and knees toprotect a child with your body.
(29:33):
So there's a child kind ofunderneath you and you're on
your hands and knees. That'skind of what this looks like,
with your arms as these landingjets. And the back, your back,
is the back of the descentstage. The jets quickly fire up,
they burst with flames, and thisenables the stage to gain
(29:57):
control. With these four jets,flames shooting out from the
corners, that's how the descentstage maintains control.
Now, I've been watching theMandalorian a lot lately, I've
been binging the Mandalorian.
Christine Malec (30:15):
Ohhh.
JJ Hunt (30:15):
And I have to say, this descent stage really reminds me
of the Mandalorian, it's alittle bit near future tech. The
back of the stage is open so youcan see the framework, you can
see the electronics, it's allexposed, there's no cover on it.
And the landing jets are justspewing fire. It's very
(30:36):
mechanical, very elemental. It'snot like laser beams and, you
know, pulse engines. It's fire,it is framework, there's
something very tangible aboutit. And reminds me of what the
Mandalorian and early Star Warsstuff does very well, which is
make the make the tech, theandroids, the ships look real.
(30:58):
Sometimes dirty and sometimesbroken, you know, this is very
real, tangible lookingequipment. So once the descent
is controlled, the descent stagesteers a bit, it adjusts course
by you know, firing one jethotter than the other. And the
flat dusty surface of Marsstarts getting closer and closer
(31:23):
as the descent stage continuesits descent. And when it's about
20 meters off the ground, therover drops away from the
descent stage, lowered oncables. They call this the sky
crane. So from about 20 metersoff the ground, the rover drops
down on a cable, and it isslowly lowered to the ground. It
(31:45):
unfolds, the rover unfolds alittle bit so that the wheels
and suspension system are all inorder, so it's in like proper
driving configuration. Thedescent stage drops closer to
the surface until the vehicletouches the ground. It actually
just lands, it settles down onits wheels. And once it's done,
once it's landed, the cables arecut, and the descent stage soars
(32:09):
off to a safe distance. Iimagine it just kind of lands or
crash lands somewhere else. Andit's done. There's something
very simple and straightforwardabout this moment of the
landing. It's almost like adrone from Amazon delivering a
package to your front lawn.
Christine Malec (32:27):
Huck huck huck!
JJ Hunt (32:28):
It's really deceptive, it looks really simple. But when
you realize that the wheels ofthis vehicle are also the
landing gear - that'sremarkable.
Christine Malec (32:39):
Whistle.
JJ Hunt (32:40):
That's really cool. And then this video gives us a final
cinematic closeup of the roveron the surface of Mars. And
again, everything looks very,very real, very tangible. The
treads on the tire, therecognizable machinery. There
are the words Perseverance, andNASA 2020 on the folded arm in
(33:03):
the trademark NASA font that alot of us are familiar with.
There's a shadow that falls onthe cracked floor, the cracked
desert floor. It's all againvery terrestrial. It's all very
real, it's recognizable. Andthen we pull back further and
further as you can only do in acomputer animation. We pull back
(33:23):
further and further and furtheruntil the rover is just a tiny
little speck all alone withnothing around but this copper-
olored desert, a rocky ridgedistant mountains. It's left a
l on
Christine Malec (33:37):
Oh, Oh, that is so cinematic.
JJ Hunt (33:41):
They do a very good job with this video, I gotta say. So
if all goes according to plan,that's what this'll look lik
. That's the entry, descent ad landin
Christine Malec (33:51):
Oh my gosh, that was epic. That was epic. I
want to mention something very,very cool, which is that there
are two microphones on board formainly for scientific purposes.
But we will definitely have alink to this in our show notes.
But if you just Google MarsPerseverance microphone on
(34:13):
board, you'll you'll get anarticle and it's it's possible
we might even get to hear thewheels crunching down on the
surface of Mars!
JJ Hunt (34:25):
Heh heh heh.
Christine Malec (34:25):
I'm so excited! We love making this podcast. If
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(34:47):
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(35:10):
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at talk description.
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ
Hunt.
Christine Malec (00:29):
Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt (00:30):
And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description Me with the
visuals of current events andthe world around us get
hashed-out in description richconversations.
Christine Malec (00:47):
If you like me, are a space geek, February 18th
2021, big historic day, the NASAMars Perseverance rover is going
to be landing. And there's lotsof coverage and information and
excitement and enthusiasm aboutthis. And NASA has its own
(01:12):
website crammed full ofresources. And some of them are
accessible, some of them arenot. But NASA definitely has its
own context for covering theevent. And so what we want to do
today is not to try to reproducethat or even to talk alongside
(01:36):
that what we want to do is givethe background so that all of
those things will make a lotmore sense, after you've
listened to, to our episodetoday if you're someone who's
blind or low vision. And sowe're going to start by talking
about what some of the thingsinvolve look like. And then
(01:59):
we're going to use some ofNASA's resources to walk through
the process. And so, JJ, whydon't we start with the vehicle
itself? What can you tell usabout what that looks like?
JJ Hunt (02:13):
So the Perseverance rover is based on the Curiosity
Rover's configuration. So ifyou're familiar with curiosity,
it's quite similar. This roveris bigger. So perseverance is
about 10 feet long, notincluding the arm, about nine
feet wide and about seven feettall. So it's the physical size
(02:35):
of a big car, but it'srelatively light, only 2260
pounds. So it's actually aboutthe weight of a compact car. So
it's relatively light for itssize. And NASA's website has
this amazing 3d image of therover so you can flip it and
turn it and zoom in and zoomout. So I was able to kind of
(02:58):
really get into the nooks andcrannies to to explore this
thing. It's a pretty cool littlevehicle. So the rover has a boxy
rectangular body. I've seen itpainted white, but some images
seem to show it as an unpaintedaluminum body. And it's this
body is like a platform. Sopicture, like a family sized
(03:21):
cereal box, lying on its front,right? So it's wider than it is
tall. It's it's boxy and like aplatform. And it's of course,
covered with doodads anddoohickeys, which are, of
course, the official NASA termsfor all the technology.
Christine Malec (03:39):
Stop overwhelming us with this
technical language. It's verydaunting. We've already lost
half the listeners already,because you've just over spoken.
JJ Hunt (03:48):
Ha ha! Oh my god, I can't get on board with the
doohickeys.
Christine Malec (03:52):
Ha ha.
JJ Hunt (03:53):
So it's like a platform for all of the tech. And then
there's another box. Kind of ashorter, more square box that's
sticking up off of the back ofthe main platform, the main body
at a 45 degree angle. This isthe power source. And this box
is open on the top and bottom.
And what it reveals is there's acylindrical fan inside. So this
(04:15):
is the power source at the backat the front of the rover. So
this would be the front rightlike the passenger side for an
American or Canadian car.
There's a mast and it sticksstraight up from the top of the
body. And on top of the mast isa series of cameras in a box
(04:40):
that looks something like a shoebox with the wide side facing
forwards at the front. So righton say this was the grille of a
car, the front of the car or thefront of the of the body.
There's a folded arm, and thisarm can kind of pull in and bend
and tuck right in again. Thefront of the rover. And on the
(05:03):
the what would be the hand, thethere is a drill on the end of
it. And that drill when the armis folded in, it sits on what
would be the driver's side whenit's not extended. There are
three wheels on each side of thevehicle. It's an ingenious,
intriguing balancing suspensionsystem. So three wheels on each
(05:27):
side. And you might expect eachwheel to be connected to the
body of the vehicle in the waythat most cars are like that,
right, you've got two wheels atthe front, two wheels at the
back on a car, and they areconnected to the body. But
that's not the way these wheelsare connected here. The three
wheels on one side are eachconnected to each other using
(05:49):
suspension tubes that areflexible and have joints in them
so that they each wheel can moveindependently. So those
connected units of three areonly attached to the body with
one joint. So on each side,three wheels on each side, those
suspension systems are connectedon one joint per side. And they
(06:11):
call this a rocker bogiesuspension system because it can
tip back and forth like a teetertotter, as the wheels are moving
it along. Because it's onlyconnected at one pivot point.
The tires themselves, they looklike they've got thin rubber
treads around like barrel shapedwheels. So very wide wheels with
(06:34):
open spokes. But in fact,there's no rubber involved. The
wheels are a thin machinedaluminum that are painted black,
and they're only as thick asseven sheets of paper. And when
the aluminum is that thin, itbecomes as flexible as rubber.
So it's got a bit of a spring toit. But it's much more durable
(06:57):
than rubber would be. And thesethis the rover is six wheel
drive. So all six wheels canspin independently. And with
that means you can spin on allfour corners, you can literally
spin on the spot. So let's breakdown some of the specifics that
we just talked about. So likethe arm, for example, the arm at
(07:18):
the front of the vehicle, it canextend up to about seven feet.
And it has a shoulder joint nearthe near the vehicle. It's got
an elbow joint in the middle,and a wrist joint near the tools
at the at the hand. And the handis known as either the hand or
the turret. And my understandingis that NASA actually refers to
these as the shoulder joint, theelbow joint and the wrist joint.
(07:40):
And what that configurationdoes, as you know your arm can
do, you can do all kinds ofthings you can reach up, you can
go to the side, you can twistand turn. So it's a very
maneuverable series of joints.
And then the device that's onthat that's the hand of the
turret has sensors, it hascameras, there's a drill here
looks a bit like a if you'reinto tools, it's like a router.
(08:04):
It's got a casing and there's adrill in the middle it can
switch drill bits and then drillinto the ground and get core
samples. A major part of thisentire mission is the ability to
get core samples. Then there'sthe mast that we talked about.
The mast elevates the camerasystem to provide a human scale
(08:26):
perspective. So it's about sevenfeet tall. It also interestingly
gives the rover a little bit ofa humanoid look because of this
boxy head. There's a single lensto one side, a big large lens.
That's a laser micro imager, andit can identify chemical
(08:48):
composition of rock and soilfrom a distance. And then below
that, there are two side by sidelenses that are smaller, and
they've got boxy black frames.
So it really looks like thickrimmed eyeglasses. These are the
mastcam Z's or the mastcam zeds.
And these two cameras arezoomable panoramic cameras that
(09:12):
can take 3d images. So the zoomon this is apparently
incredible. It can spotsomething as the size of a house
fly from 350 feet away.
Christine Malec (09:26):
Tee hee!
JJ Hunt (09:26):
So that's the length of a soccer field. And it can
create 3d images, panoramicimages, very, very cool. And
then the way this thing moves,so the way the rover moves, it's
very, very slow. Like it crawlsalong at something like a few
centimeters per second. And thesuspension setup means that the
(09:48):
tires can roll over rocks or dipinto small holes independently
and keep the main body level. Soif you want to bit of help kind
of conjuring that movement, justtake your arms, put them at your
sides with bent elbows, forearmsparallel with the floor. So kind
(10:09):
of like you're sitting in a inan arm chair and your arms are
resting on the arms of an armchair. And now very gently,
quite calmly, start to move yourarms up and down a little bit.
You bend your wrists, bend yourelbows, shrug your shoulders,
and they don't have to be movingtogether, they can move
(10:30):
independently. So each arm eachjoint very slowly rolling up and
down, moving independently, butyour body in the middle remains
stable. And that's kind of howthe rover looks when it's
moving. With these slight rollsup and down as the tires, each
(10:51):
individual tire rolls over arock or dips into a hole in the
body in the middle is remainingstable. That's how this rover
looks as it's slowly movingalong.
Christine Malec (11:04):
So that's just the outside. So there's other
things inside too!
JJ Hunt (11:10):
Yeah, so tucked away in this rover is a helicopter;
Ingenuity. The name of it is theIngenuity helicopter. This is
the first aircraft on Mars. Andit's little, it's smaller. It's
a little drone, basically. Idon't know exactly how it gets
(11:30):
unpacked, I haven't seen anyimages of how it gets unpacked.
But they've got test footage,and they've got animations on
their website, NASA shows thelook of it once it's assembled
and ready to go. So the needsfor this helicopter, in order to
get a helicopter moving on Mars,you need a very light vehicle
(11:52):
and rotors that spin very, very,very fast. So the rotors on this
helicopter on ingenuity, theyspin at like 2 to 3000
revolutions per minute. Mosthelicopters on Earth, their main
rotor spins at about 450 to 500revolutions per minute. So it's
(12:12):
a very fast.
Christine Malec (12:12):
Wow!
JJ Hunt (12:13):
And the vehicle has to be fully autonomous during its
flight. So all of the computerequipment that is on board has
to be really light, and it's gotto be able to generate a lot of
power. And it has to be smart,it has to be able to fly, you
know, on its own. And the planis to fly this helicopter at
(12:36):
about three to five meters high,a three to five meters off the
surface and travel horizontallyat only a few meters per second.
Maybe they'll go as far as 50 to70 meters. If that goes well,
maybe they'll they'll you know,they'll go further and then come
back. It's really amazing, Ithink mostly they're going to be
taking some pictures and testingthe the technology. But if it
(13:00):
goes well the the missions forthis type of helicopter will be
expanded. So the look of thehelicopter, of ingenuity; The
body really looks like a boxmade of tin foil. Just a very
simple box made of tin foil.
Rising up from that box in thecenter is a mast. And it has two
stacked horizontal propellers.
(13:24):
And each blade is a twin blade,meaning the mast is in the
center and there's one blade onone side and one blade on the
other. And there are two ofthose one on top of the other
and they spin in oppositedirections. And then above the
propellers on the top of themast is what looks like a flat
solar panel. And there's alittle short wire antenna that
(13:47):
sticks up from that solar panel.
It's a you know, just verystraight stiff wire and there
are a couple little zigzags init. I'm sure those zigzags have
some kind of function, but forme, it just adds personality.
It's really cute. Heh heh.
Christine Malec (14:02):
Ha ha ha!
JJ Hunt (14:02):
So a little antenna coming up the top. The
helicopter stands on four legs.
And these four legs extend outfrom the top corners of the tin
foil box at about a 45 degreeangle. And they look a bit like
golf clubs with the heads as thefeet that are standing on the
ground. And then they the shaftscome back up toward toward this
(14:25):
tin foil box and the spread ofthe feet and the length of the
propeller blades. They're verysimilar there you know that that
that's more or less thefootprint that it's taking up is
the same as the space that'srequired for the rotors to spin
around. And that's thehelicopter. It's like a little
drone. It's really cool.
Christine Malec (14:48):
If you're a science fiction fan, you've
probably read books set on Marsand I actually just did a reread
of the Martian by Andy Weir. Andso I feel like I was just there.
I totally recommend it, amazingbook. But I feel like it would
be really nice to talk about thelandscape or the view of the
(15:09):
landing site. Can we do that?
JJ Hunt (15:11):
Yeah, so there's some really interesting images coming
in of Mars right now. Mars isthe hotspot right now. There are
two or three other crafts thatare orbiting Mars right now
sending back amazing pictures.
So the images of Mars itselfhave never been better, they've
never been clearer. So Marsreally does look red. Now not a
(15:32):
solid red, right? I've got acouple of images here that more
or less fill the screen of mylaptop. If this was an object
sitting in your hand, it wouldbe somewhere between the size of
a grapefruit and the size of acantaloupe. So at that distance,
at that perspective, Mars isreddish in color, but like a
(15:53):
coppery color of red, like abrick red. And even from this
distance, it looks dusty,there's a dull quality to the
color. And it's mottled. So it'snot a solid ball of uniform
color. It is mottled; someplaces are darker, some places
are lighter. And it looks kindalike a bowling ball! With
(16:18):
something like the planet Earth,which is of course, that's what
everything is compared to;Earth, with us being Earthlings
and all! We've got continents,we've got water, we've got
cloud, we've got deserts, we'vegot forests. There's all sorts
of color variation. There's allsorts of land shape variation.
Not as much with Mars, it'suniformly desert, all surfaces.
(16:43):
There are canyons, there areplanetary scars, there are there
are rings (which are craters),there are volcanoes, there are
cracks and rents in the surface.
(17:03):
And some of those areas arequite dark. But it's still all
desert. It's all this dustycolor of coppery red. And then
when you get closer to thelanding site, the landing site
is Jezero crater. And this is acrater that once held a lake.
(17:24):
That's why they're going there.
And I've seen some concept art[artist's interpretatins] of the
lake as well as some satelliteimages. And in the concept art
[artist's interpretations] theyshow this this crater filled
with water, it's a lake that ishemmed in by the raised lip of
the crater. And there are twowinding rivers or streams that
are connected to the main cratertoward the distant like there,
(17:47):
there are marshy areas orsmaller bodies of water at the
far ends of these winding riversor streams that lead to and away
from the main lake. So there'san inflow channel, at we'll call
it 12 o'clock. And then there'san outflow channel at four
o'clock. And you can see thatboth in the concept art - the
(18:10):
artist's interpretation. As wellas in satellite images, you can
still see the dry channels thatwould be coming in at 12 o'clock
and going out at four o'clock.
And there's a Delta deposit atthe mouth of the inflow channel.
Christine Malec (18:30):
Gasp!
JJ Hunt (18:31):
So this is a land form where sediment has been
deposited by moving water as itarrives at this larger body of
water. And this is the place tolive if you're a micro organism.
That's why Jezero crater is theplace where they want to land
because they've got access tothis delta.
Christine Malec (18:52):
Oh my god, you got me with the delta. So when
you're looking at the image thatis not the the artist's
conception but the actual image.
Does your eye see Lake, River,Delta?
JJ Hunt (19:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially once you know what'sthere. If you see this image,
and there's a caption at thebottom that tells you, that
gives you some scientificinformation, informs you that
this is a picture of a dry lakebed with an inflow and outflow
it's clear as day. You can seethe channel and you can see
(19:27):
where there would have been amarshy area, and then when you
zoom in closer you can see thisdelta deposit. They highlighted
it in some of their images, buteven without highlighting it,
you can see that there'ssomething there. That this
deposit is different. Thetexture appears different, the
topography of the Delta appearsdifferent than the rest of the
(19:51):
inside of this crater which isrelatively flat and smooth.
Christine Malec (19:58):
I have goosebumps! So I know that I'm a
bit more like excitable aboutthis than you. But does it
affect you to look at that?
Because I know you're not a bigscience fiction or space geek.
But when you look at it, you seethat it was land, do you see
that it used to be somethingelse it does that have an
emotional impact on you? Or isit just scientifically
interesting?
JJ Hunt (20:20):
For me, it definitely does. When you you know, when
you look at the images like someof the images I first described
of the planet, and I say thereare rents and there are cracks,
and there are creases, and thereare these pock marks on it. You
know, that's interesting. Whenyou take a moment, and you say
yeah, but that crack, that wasfrom an earthquake! Oh,
(20:43):
earthquakes, I know those! Wehave those. That's real, that's
tangible. And that winding linethat's a little bit pale, that
looks like a thin scar runningthrough a desert area. Oh, wait
a minute; that's a that's a dryriverbed, or maybe it's a
canyon, depending on how big itis. Oh, wait a minute, we have
(21:04):
those on earth! And so suddenly,when I when I make those visuals
real, when I compare them towhat I know, thaings that are
tangible, that are terrestrial,to me, it tells a story of a
place that has changed, that hasevolved over time, that has
(21:24):
become this red ball in the skythat is a place that science
fiction writers will turn thatinto a home. But it's the fact
that it's real, tangible, it haschanged. What is the history?
Christine Malec (21:44):
Yup.
JJ Hunt (21:44):
Every one of these marks has a history to it. What
is the history of all of that?
That's what gets me.
Christine Malec (21:50):
NASA prepared a video of the so-called seven
minutes of terror! We thought wewould talk about it at our
leisure. So NASA, again,obviously has their own ways of
covering this, and again, ourintent is to give give some
background and filler that as anon sighted person you wouldn't
(22:10):
have. So we thought we wouldwalk through the NASA construct
of the seven minutes of terror.
So lay it on us, JJ.
JJ Hunt (22:17):
Yeah. So what what they did was they they condensed it
into three minutes; a threeminute computer animated video
that showed the planned landingfor perseverance. And so this is
a very cinematic take on thislanding. They change camera
angles, so to speak, they givedifferent perspectives from the
(22:38):
spacecraft and from the ground.
And it's very dramatic. This isthe landing as it would be seen
if you had a professional filmcrew that had cameras floating
in space and on the ground. Thisis what they would hopefully
film as the landing craft wascoming on. So I'm just gonna,
I'll give kind of a summarydescription. I think this is the
(23:01):
clearest visual that we'relikely to get of this landing.
So there are five key componentsof the entry descent and landing
phase. There's the cruise stage,the back shell, the descent
stage, the perseverance rover,and then the heat shield. And
now the two stages, the cruisestage and the descent stage, the
(23:24):
stages can be a littleconfusing, because the word
"stage" I think, can mean boththe phase but it's also the
physical stage, the platformthat is enabling this moment,
right? So as the cruiseconfiguration, which is what
it's in right now, as the cruiseconfiguration approaches Mars,
(23:46):
the spacecraft resembles a squatspinning top with a rounded tip
and a capped ring on top. Thecapped ring that's on the top,
that's the cruise stage. It'sgot a flat top covered in solar
panels, and then the underside(which is protected by the ring)
(24:07):
is packed with electronics andwhat looks like wires inside
rigid copper pipes. That's theunderside of the cruise stage.
And as the spacecraft approachesMars it is released; separated.
So the spinning top continuesthe descent on its own, and the
(24:27):
cruise stage fades away. At thispoint, the outside of the craft
is really just two components,the back shell and the heat
shield. And together that'sknown as the aero shell. And
again, it looks more or lesslike a spinning top with a with
a smooth, pointed tip. So thatsmooth tip, the rounded point,
(24:50):
the rounded tip, that's the heatshield. It's gold in color and
it kind of looks a bit likeCaptain America's shield, but
it's got a little bit more of aconical shape. And then the back
shell behind it is also conical,but it's a little bit taller.
Okay, that's the aero shell.
(25:14):
The heat shield cuts through theatmosphere, so the Areoshell
goes toward the planet heatshield first. And as it cuts
through the atmosphere, smallbursts of [what looks like]
steam begin to puff out of theback shell, these are little
jets that are helping tomaintain the course. So they go
PFFFT PFFFT! And that'll helpsteer and keep the heat shield
(25:38):
pointed into the atmosphere. Inthe NASA animated video you get
views from the surface of Marsas this streak of orange flame,
like a comet, cuts across thedusty yellow sky that's above
this desert planet. There aredistant mountains in the
(26:00):
background and you see whatlooks like a streaking comet.
That's, that's the aero shell,that's this spacecraft coming
in. At this point, we then cutback to of a close up of of the
aero shell. And what looks likewhite hot flames are whipping
(26:20):
past the aero shell. It lookslike they're emanating from the
rounded tip of the heat shield.
And of course what this is, isthe heat shield dissipating the
energy that's caused by thefriction of the spacecraft
cutting through the atmosphere.
Then the video gives us a littleglimpse inside this shell that's
(26:42):
around the important stuff. Thisis where the rover is. And
inside the rover is thehelicopter. So we get just a
little glimpse inside, at thistucked-in rover. The wheels are
kind of tucked up and folded up.
And it's rumbling as thespacecarft goes through the
atmosphere. And as we get closerto the planet, we pass few, just
(27:03):
a very few wispy clouds. Andthen the topography of the
planet's surface becomes clear.
And we see there's a crater ringin the distance in front of us.
And we're getting closer andcloser to the surface of Mars.
Now, there's a nub at the top ofthe back shield. At the top of
(27:26):
this conical back shield, andfrom that nub a parachute on a
very long cable suddenlyejected. It shoots up and it
opens up. The chute opens andimmediately the speed slows
dramatically. This chute thatopens up is round. It's mostly
white, there's orange trim, itlooks kind of like a knit cap
(27:48):
like a toque or a beanie. And weget an overhead view of this
tiny white dot, this parachute,dangling a cord and the rest of
the back shield. That's hangingdown from it, zipping across the
surface of this sandy planet.
That's from this overhead view.
(28:08):
And then the heat shieldseparates, it drops away toward
the surface. And inside, you nowhave the exposed rover. So the
rover that's still inside theback shell is exposed to the
air. And apparently at thispoint, the rover is going to
start taking pictures. It'sgonna start taking images of the
(28:29):
surface. And the rover itselfwill use those pictures to
determine where it's safe toland. This will allow the
vehicle to land near interestingthings but not on top of
dangerous things. So momentsafter the heat shield drops away
the images have been taken bythe rover, the descent stage
(28:50):
inside the back shield dropsdown. And the descent stage is
both a name for this stage whenit's descending further, and the
stage as a literal platform. Andnow everything is exposed.
There's no casing on anything.
You have the rover tucked intothe descent stage, and in this
configuration, it's kind of Puckshaped. The descent stage looks
(29:13):
a little bit like a roundedrobotic turtle shell with four
landing jets instead of legs,and then the rover is tucked
underneath it. So one way toimagine this is imagine getting
on your hands and knees toprotect a child with your body.
(29:33):
So there's a child kind ofunderneath you and you're on
your hands and knees. That'skind of what this looks like,
with your arms as these landingjets. And the back, your back,
is the back of the descentstage. The jets quickly fire up,
they burst with flames, and thisenables the stage to gain
(29:57):
control. With these four jets,flames shooting out from the
corners, that's how the descentstage maintains control.
Now, I've been watching theMandalorian a lot lately, I've
been binging the Mandalorian.
Christine Malec (30:15):
Ohhh.
JJ Hunt (30:15):
And I have to say, this descent stage really reminds me
of the Mandalorian, it's alittle bit near future tech. The
back of the stage is open so youcan see the framework, you can
see the electronics, it's allexposed, there's no cover on it.
And the landing jets are justspewing fire. It's very
(30:36):
mechanical, very elemental. It'snot like laser beams and, you
know, pulse engines. It's fire,it is framework, there's
something very tangible aboutit. And reminds me of what the
Mandalorian and early Star Warsstuff does very well, which is
make the make the tech, theandroids, the ships look real.
(30:58):
Sometimes dirty and sometimesbroken, you know, this is very
real, tangible lookingequipment. So once the descent
is controlled, the descent stagesteers a bit, it adjusts course
by you know, firing one jethotter than the other. And the
flat dusty surface of Marsstarts getting closer and closer
(31:23):
as the descent stage continuesits descent. And when it's about
20 meters off the ground, therover drops away from the
descent stage, lowered oncables. They call this the sky
crane. So from about 20 metersoff the ground, the rover drops
down on a cable, and it isslowly lowered to the ground. It
(31:45):
unfolds, the rover unfolds alittle bit so that the wheels
and suspension system are all inorder, so it's in like proper
driving configuration. Thedescent stage drops closer to
the surface until the vehicletouches the ground. It actually
just lands, it settles down onits wheels. And once it's done,
once it's landed, the cables arecut, and the descent stage soars
(32:09):
off to a safe distance. Iimagine it just kind of lands or
crash lands somewhere else. Andit's done. There's something
very simple and straightforwardabout this moment of the
landing. It's almost like adrone from Amazon delivering a
package to your front lawn.
Christine Malec (32:27):
Huck huck huck!
JJ Hunt (32:28):
It's really deceptive, it looks really simple. But when
you realize that the wheels ofthis vehicle are also the
landing gear - that'sremarkable.
Christine Malec (32:39):
Whistle.
JJ Hunt (32:40):
That's really cool. And then this video gives us a final
cinematic closeup of the roveron the surface of Mars. And
again, everything looks very,very real, very tangible. The
treads on the tire, therecognizable machinery. There
are the words Perseverance, andNASA 2020 on the folded arm in
(33:03):
the trademark NASA font that alot of us are familiar with.
There's a shadow that falls onthe cracked floor, the cracked
desert floor. It's all againvery terrestrial. It's all very
real, it's recognizable. Andthen we pull back further and
further as you can only do in acomputer animation. We pull back
(33:23):
further and further and furtheruntil the rover is just a tiny
little speck all alone withnothing around but this copper-
olored desert, a rocky ridgedistant mountains. It's left a
l on
Christine Malec (33:37):
Oh, Oh, that is so cinematic.
JJ Hunt (33:41):
They do a very good job with this video, I gotta say. So
if all goes according to plan,that's what this'll look lik
. That's the entry, descent ad landin
Christine Malec (33:51):
Oh my gosh, that was epic. That was epic. I
want to mention something very,very cool, which is that there
are two microphones on board formainly for scientific purposes.
But we will definitely have alink to this in our show notes.
But if you just Google MarsPerseverance microphone on
(34:13):
board, you'll you'll get anarticle and it's it's possible
we might even get to hear thewheels crunching down on the
surface of Mars!
JJ Hunt (34:25):
Heh heh heh.
Christine Malec (34:25):
I'm so excited! We love making this podcast. If
you love hearing it, perhapsyou'll consider supporting its
creation and development bybecoming a patron. We've set up
a Patreon page to help cover thecosts of putting the show
together. You can contribute asa listener or as a sponsor to
help ensure that accessible andentertaining journalism
(34:47):
continues to reach ourcommunity. Visit patreon.com
slash talk description to methat's pa t ar e o n.com slash
talk description to me. Havefeedback or suggestions of what
you'd like To hear about here'show to get in touch with us. Our
email address is talkdescription to me@gmail.com. Our
Facebook page is called talkdescription to me. Our website
(35:10):
is talk description to me.comand you can follow us on Twitter
at talk description.
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