Perseverance and Ingenuity
The whole world watched as NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover landed on the red planet at around 3:55 p.m. EST February 18, 2021.
This is not a first for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system in the United States. They have an impressive history of space exploration and discovery spanning more than 50 years.
During their stay, Perseverance and its sidekick helicopter, Ingenuity, will operate under extreme conditions. Mars has punishing temperatures, a thin atmosphere and about one-third less gravity than Earth. This trio of exceptional environmental conditions will push the craft components and equipment in ways that are difficult to prototype and test on Earth.
If it succeeds, Ingenuity will be the first aircraft to fly autonomously in a controlled flight on another planet. Perseverance will collect and cache samples over the course of one year (687 Earth days), and within 5 to 7 years, NASA will attempt to retrieve the cached samples in another mission.
Find out more about the Perseverance mission
Simcenter 3D
Simcenter 3D helps spacecraft designers overcome critical engineering challenges. The Simcenter 3D platform provides seamless multi-discipline integration between design, analysis and manufacturing needed for digital end-to-end predictive engineering and virtual testing.
We are proud that software authored by Maya HTT and included in the Siemens Digital Industries Software Simcenter 3D platform has accompanied JPL on their path to previous successful groundbreaking missions.
Read about the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL):