Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - Touchdown! The Sights and Sounds of Perseverance on Mars

Episode Date: February 24, 2021

The Mars 2020 rover is on Mars. We have collected the most thrilling moments from the landing and the revelations that followed, including the first sounds recorded on the Red Planet. Bill Nye congratulates the entire Perseverance team and explains why this audacious mission is so important. Then Bruce Betts and Mat Kaplan welcome special guests as they read the winners of the What’s Up Mars poetry contest. There’s more to discover at  https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/perseverance-landing-highlightsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Touchdown! The sights and sounds of Perseverance on Mars, this week on Planetary Radio. Welcome. I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond. NASA's Mars 2020 rover has safely reached Jezero crater, taking the first step toward the return of Martian soil that may tell us if life once existed there. In the meantime, it will explore a river delta, launch a helicopter, make movies, and let us listen to the sounds of the red planet. A very special episode of our show this week as we bring you many of the most memorable moments in the creation of a most memorable space exploration milestone. You'll also hear my brief conversation with Bill Nye about this accomplishment. Then Bruce Betts and I will be joined by some special guests to present the winners of our Mars Poetry Competition.

the winners of our Mars Poetry Competition. We'll close with the Planetary Radio premiere of a new tune inspired by Perseverance that was composed and recorded by our unearthly friends, the Amoeba people, on the day the rover landed. We'll get right to it, skipping our usual review of headlines from the Planetary Society's newsletter. Besides, the top story in the latest edition of the Downlink, is What Else? The Landing of Perseverance. You can read and see more at planetary.org slash downlink. It's the morning of Thursday, February 18th, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A crowd has

gathered there. That in itself is out of the ordinary after nearly a year of careful isolation and barely occupied facilities. Perseverance is approaching the outer reaches of the Martian atmosphere, where its seven minutes of terror will begin. Rows of engineers and managers sit at their consoles, listening to the mostly very careful communications flowing to their headsets. listening to the mostly very careful communications flowing to their headsets. There is a pause as three leaders of this nearly decade-long effort express their hopes and thanks. Thanks for literally and figuratively putting us in the right position to succeed, and let's land on Mars together.

Copy, EDLCs. As flight director, I also would like to thank the whole team, cruise ops, EDL ops, EDL team, and the surface ops as well. It's been an amazing journey. I think we all know that. And it's been my honor and pleasure to work with you all side by side. And your tireless efforts and endurance in the face of our challenges has been truly, truly inspiring. So kudos to you.

Mission, would you like to say something? Yeah, just echoing the same words that Al and Magdy have mentioned, you guys have overcome great obstacles in the last six and a half months, and it started with an earthquake in this room on launch day at L-20 minutes. I can't be more proud than all of the achievements that you guys have pulled off in the last six and a half months. Whatever happens in the next hour and a half, you can be proud of the achievements that you've accomplished so far. I look forward to seeing you on the other side, and I only wish that the rest of our team could be sharing this moment with us. This is a very unusual event.

This room is only half as full as it would be if we weren't in this pandemic, so missing everybody on the team who's not with us here today. And go EDL. Welcome to the EDL family. Thank you. Welcome to the EEL family. And with that, Godspeed, Perseverance. Millions were watching NASA TV's coverage around the world. Providing color commentary was JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning.

Thank you very much, Rick, for having me here. And what a wonderful experience. What a wonderful day for a beautiful day in California. We're just all so excited here, anxious, worried, but very hopeful. Rob, I have a question for you. There is a landing tradition at JPL that involves eating peanuts for good luck. Can you tell us how did that start? Yes, it started in the mid-1960s. What happened was we had a series of missions that had failures. The Ranger program in the early 1960s, one after another, failed. And what happened was one day, a fellow by the name of Dick Wallace on Ranger number seven, on the seventh attempt, decided to bring peanuts to the ops area just before the launch.

And guess what? That mission worked. Now, we're not supposed to be too superstitious. We're engineers and scientists after all. But we love tradition. And ever since then, before launch and before critical events like inter-descent landing, we have brought out Peanuts and shared them with the team.

And it's been really a wonderful little experience. And so this is something we will do, we're doing right now. And it's something that we just can't help ourselves. It's just part of the experience. Now the seven minutes have begun. You'll mostly hear JPL engineer Swati Mohan as she narrates the descent moment by moment. But you'll also hear an anxious and excited Rob Manning reacting to each update. Here is my somewhat compressed montage that will take us right through the landing

and a nice surprise. Perseverance has just passed through the point of maximum deceleration and has indicated that it felt approximately 10 earth G's of deceleration. The camera has locked again. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We saw a small outage of the UHF telemetry from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter during that peak heating phase likely caused by the plasma blackout. Perseverance is still continuing to perform bank reversals in the atmosphere to control its distance to the landing target.

We are starting the straighten up and fly right maneuver where the spacecraft will jettison the entry balance masses in preparation for parachute deploy and to roll over to give the radar a better look at the ground. Yes, yes, yes. The navigation has confirmed that the parachute has deployed, and we are seeing significant deceleration in the velocity. Our current velocity is 480 meters per second at an altitude of about 12 kilometers from the surface of Mars. at an altitude of about 12 kilometers from the surface of Mars. Perseverance has now slowed to subsonic speeds, and the heat shield has been separated.

This allows both the radar and the cameras to get their first look at the surface. Current velocity is 145 meters per second at an altitude of about 9.5 kilometers above the surface. Yes, yes, yes. Perseverance now has radar lock on the ground. Current velocity is about 100 meters per second, 6.6 kilometers of the surface. Perseverance is continuing to descend on the parachute. We are coming up on the initialization of terrain relative navigation and subsequently the priming of the landing engines. Our current velocity is about 90 meters per second at an altitude of 4.2 kilometers.

Almost there. We have confirmation that the lander vision system has produced a valid solution and part of terrain relative navigation. We have timing of the landing engines. Skycam maneuver has started. About 20 meters off the surface. Touchdown confirmed. Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars. Ready to begin seeking the sands of past life.

At this point, the DeSantis stage has flown away to a safe distance. Perseverance is continuing to transmit direct through Mars, Oh, my God. Oh. Oh. Tomorrow reports they're still getting telemetry from the lander. All right. All right, all stations. We got it. Touchdown confirmed.

We're going to wait for the images. Wow. This is so exciting. The team is beside themselves. It's so surreal. Stay tuned. We might get some pictures. That would be great.

Thank you. So much has been riding on this. We have just heard the news that Perseverance is alive on the surface of Mars. Congratulations to the mission. Looks like we have some more news in. It looks like we're getting the first image. Here take a look at the first image. Flight this is OL3. I have the target point on the map when you are ready. We are ready OL3. Go for it. Okay, we have a camera in the front and rear of the spacecraft.

They're near the ground, so these are pretty close. You can see the wheels there. And they're a little dirty because we've got glass covers over these cameras, but we took these seconds after landing, so they're still dust in the air from our landing event. So this is happening. This happened just seconds ago, just arrived, and this is really amazing.

And we even know where we landed. This is the most amazing thing. Their vehicle has told us where it's landed because it figured it out. You know, this is a sign. NASA works. NASA works. And when we put our arms together and our hands together and our brains together,

we can succeed. This is what NASA does. This is what we can do as a country on all of the problems we have. We need to work together to do these kinds of things and make success happen. Hours have passed. Mission leaders, NASA officials, and others have gathered with proper social distancing in JPL's famed von Karman Auditorium, where I'm sure I'd have been if the pandemic had allowed.

Here is Beaming NASA Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Thomas Zerbuken. Listen carefully for the sound of paper being torn. I want to share an event with you that usually happens when I'm by myself. And what you should know is that every time we do a launch or we do a landing, we get two plans. One plan is the one we want to do. And then there's that second plan, which is right here. That's the contingency plan. Here is for the contingency plan. All right.

Thank you. Jessica Samuels is the Perseverance surface mission manager. She provided this report on the health of the rover. All of our instruments have gone through their initial checkouts, and we're happy to report that they are all performing nominally and as expected. Now, when I say nominal, it really means fantastic, because we can't wait to continue to use this payload suite. Matt Wallace is the Mars 2020 Deputy Project Manager. You know, you just got a chance to watch this team do one of the

hardest things we do in our business, which is to land a spacecraft on the planet Mars. You know, we arrived at Mars moving at about 12,000 miles an hour roughly, and just seven short minutes we had to slow down and gently put Perseverance down in Jezero Crater, and the system just performed flawlessly. You know, I'd get through 10 or 12 Gs of deceleration, a supersonic parachute deployment, eight big main engines had to fire. Our terrain relative navigation hazard avoidance system had to perform the way it was designed. And, you know, it's just it's never easy. These things are so complicated.

We were running a couple million lines of flight software code. I think we had something on the order of 30,000 parameters to set and get them all right. It's just a difficult thing to do, and it's a real, very gratifying and quite a relief to be through it. Lori Glaze directs the Planetary Science Division at NASA. Lori is immediately followed by Ken Farley, the delighted project scientist for Perseverance. Wow, right. There's just so much excitement and emotion here today. And I, of course, have to extend my thanks as well to the entire team who really had to work under adverse conditions over the last year, but have worked hard for the six years prior to that as well.

And probably even before that, leading up to the beginning of the, when the project got kicked off. I'd also like to make sure I give a little shout out and some thanks to my headquarters staff that support this as well. You know, we all work together. It's all one big team.

And I wanted to tell the folks here, the March 2020 team, that it was just such an honor to be here and be allowed to sit in the control room with you guys. Y'all are incredible. You're amazing. And I know it wasn't even the full team there and the full breadth of that team. The capabilities are just astounding. And so I'm just so proud of everything you've accomplished. And, you know, thank you for letting me be a part of it here today. It is really, truly exciting. You know, now that we're on the ground, now the fun really starts. Wow. We have a science mission. It has been a long road to get here. And one of the things I would point out, it may be not obvious from the outside, but a mission like this is a lot like a decade long relay race. There was the whole first stage

where the whole spacecraft was designed and built, and literally as the pandemic was closing in, was raced off to the Cape to make the launch. The second leg was to get through space and arrive successfully as we have just done. And the third leg is the one that we are about to embark on. That's the science mission. And one of the amazing things about this is there are thousands of people all along the

way and at each step those people peel off and move on to new jobs. And so on behalf of the science team I want to thank my friends to the right here and all of the folks that got us to where we are this is a spectacular place to be so thank you thank you all so much for that and we are gonna do you proud in the science mission I want to start off just saying a few words about where we are and what we know so far this is obviously not based on very much information and my phone is buzzing all the time with people telling me things so we're already starting to process the information that we have but in this first image you can see that we landed

to the southeast of the delta we are about two kilometers to the southeast of the delta we are actually right on the boundary between two different geologic units there's the kind of smooth area that we landed on we call that the mafic floor unit and then there's the kind of smooth area that we landed on, we call that the mafic floor unit. And then there's the rough area, this is actually where the dunes are, and that's the olivine bearing unit. This is a great place to be because one of the things that scientists love to do is look to see how two different geologic units come together. It tells you a lot about the geologic history. So we're really excited to get going on this. We can already see some important things. There are rocks in this field of view.

We don't know exactly how big they are, but they might be about 10 centimeters would be a reasonable guess. Those are going to be very interesting. They will undoubtedly be some of the first objects that we explore once the kind of shakedown phase of the early rover operations completes and also in the background we believe that we can see the delta there there are features in the back that look like the cliffs of the delta so when we get those additional images back that jennifer was mentioning we should know a lot more about that and then we can also see some sand dunes in there and and actually uh in something of a relief our imaging scientist told me when I went and talked to him about this image, I asked him what he saw and he said, looks like Mars.

So I'm glad we have successfully landed on Mars. A very brief break now before we return to hear the first sounds ever directly recorded on Mars. Much more, including Bill Nye, is also ahead, along with music from the amoeba people. In 2021, mental health is finally a thing. So many people are struggling right now and aren't feeling like their normal selves. Therapy helps, and it doesn't have to be sitting around just talking about your feelings.

So what is therapy exactly? It's whatever you want it to be. You can privately talk to someone if you feel like you're not dealing well with stress or you're having relationship issues. Whatever you need, it's time to stop being ashamed of normal human struggles and start feeling better because you deserve to be happy. And now you don't have to worry about finding an in-person therapist near you to help. BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to.

It's much more affordable than in-person therapy, and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours. Join the millions of people who are seeing what therapy is really about. See if it's for you because you are your greatest asset. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp, and Planetary Radio listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash planet. That's BetterHelp.com slash planet. Four more days have passed. Rumors have leaked from JPL

about something everyone has been hoping to see. Here is Deputy Project Manager Matt Wallace to introduce some of the most jaw-dropping video I have ever witnessed. My daughter is a gymnast. She's been a gymnast since she was a little kid. And when she was about, I guess, 11 years old and the project was still in formulation, she asked me for one of those little sports cameras. And being the indulgent parent I am, I got her the sports camera and she put it in the harness that it came with. And she put the harness on and she did a backflip. I don't know about you but I cannot do a backflip. But when she showed me the video and I watched that camera pan up to the ceiling and then the room go upside down and then somehow right itself as she landed on her feet,

room go upside down and then somehow right itself as she landed on her feet. You know, I felt for a moment that I had a glimpse into what it would be like if I could do a backflip. That was the moment that inspired a phone call to my friend Dave Gruhl over here. And that's what led to this system, this entry, descent, and landing camera system. We call them the EDL cams that you're about to see the product of here just in a moment. Now, I don't know about you, but it is unlikely at this point in my career that I will pilot a spacecraft down to the surface of Mars. But when you see this imagery, I think you will feel like you are getting a glimpse into what it would be like to land successfully in Jezero Crater with Perseverance.

I've never wished more than this moment that I could share this great video with you, but I can do the next best thing by directing you to planetary.org, where my colleague Jason Davis has collected video, images, and more. But there is something our show is ideally suited for. To introduce it, here is Dave Gruhl, Manager of Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations for Perseverance. I think we probably have overloaded your visual sense for a little bit,

so we're going to do something a little bit different, and I'm going to have some fun here for a second, too. So I'm going to get rid of this. And I'm going to talk to you now with this. This is the microphone that was part of the EDO camera system. When the EDO cam system was first envisioned, it was set up as just a bunch of cameras to recapture some amazing imagery on the surface of

Mars. And about a year or so after it was first conceived, I got a phone call, another call from Matt, who after talking to headquarters asked the question, could we possibly put a microphone as part of our EDL camera system? So we worked with the team, we took a look, and sure enough, it was something that we could do. And so we started off that detail design and identifying a microphone that would work for us and getting it onto the vehicle. About a year after this first started,

I was giving a tour at GPL. And I happened to mention to the group that I was giving the tour to GPL. And I happened to mention to the group that I was giving the tour to that the decision had come down, and we were working to actually include a microphone onto the vehicle. And after the tour was done, a gal came up to me, and she said some things to me that I won't forget anytime soon. She said, I'm super excited that you guys are going to try to put a microphone

onto the rover and get it to the surface of Mars and I was very appreciative and I asked her afterwards I said I'm curious why is it that this relates to you so much and her response was that her sister was visually impaired she was not able to see these images that that we saw earlier or that we sent down in the past and while she tries to describe them to her, she felt that she just can't quite capture that same sense of amazement that she gets when she gets them visually. And that by actually getting a microphone out of the surface of Mars, the hope was that she'd be able to experience things on Mars the same way that she was when

she actually looked at them. And that stuck with me. We continued to work super hard to make sure that this microphone would work. And that's part of the reason we were disappointed why it didn't work when we actually went and did our entry descent and landing sequence. I wish I had actually captured that individual's name. I would love to reach out to her now and say, we've done it. I hope your sister is enjoying it. Because what I'm going to show you in a second, or what I'm going to, you're going to hear in a second, is actually the first sounds being recorded from the surface of Mars. So there are two microphones on the Perseverance vehicle. There's this microphone here, which is part of the entry, descent, and landing system. And there's a

second microphone that is on the SuperCam instrument. And we're counting on both of these instruments recording some absolutely amazing sounds from the surface of Mars. So with that, I invite you now to, if you would like to, close your eyes and just imagine yourself sitting on the surface of Mars and listening to the rover. But yes, what you did hear 10 seconds in was an actual wind gust on the surface of Mars picked up by the microphone and sent back to us here on Earth. The analysis indicates that was around a 5 meter per second type of a wind gust. So we have actually, we can sit here now and actually tell you that we have recorded sounds from

the surface of Mars. Al Chen led the entry, descent, and landing team. Here he is describing the almost unbelievable accuracy of the landing that was enabled by new technology, including the Terrain Relative Navigation System. And in fact, when you combine that with our safe target selection and where we flew to, we only missed the targeted pixel by about five meters. So we were aiming for a particular spot on the planet once it decided what was reachable and what the safest spot was. And given how well the lander vision system performed and our system in flying us there, we only missed by five meters. Lastly, here is Ken Williford, who, along with Katie Stack Morgan, is a deputy project scientist for Perseverance. After all, it's the science that this mission is really about.

We wanted to make sure to remind you that there's plenty of science going on already with hundreds of team members pouring over every new image. We start with what may seem like very basic observations. Light rocks, dark rocks, holy rocks. That's holy with an E. We use these very generic terms at this early stage until we have more data that allow us to test our hypotheses and make more confident interpretations. Follow along with the mission and you'll see that this is a theme. As we get closer, our view of Mars continues to resolve and a coherent story emerges.

Finally, I just want to briefly point out that we are finding real science value in these EDLCam videos. Here you can see a beautiful new perspective on the Jezero Delta. Also, a new perspective on some of the beautiful stratigraphy around our landing site, which is up near on the far right side of this image. This was a media briefing, so I not very patiently waited on the phone for my turn to ask a question. I couldn't resist also conveying a message. Hi, everyone. Congratulations from not just me, but all of us at the Planetary Society. I've been texting with our boss, Bill Nye the Science Guy, who has been watching everything along with us, and here's part of his reaction.

Oh, my, this is astonishing, astonishing, dare-mighty things. But here's my question for Ken Williford. Ken, getting these first images and video from so much closer to the surface of Mars than we have from the orbiters, in spite of the great job that they're capable of, does this start to make you think about the potential of doing this on a regular basis from balloons or let's say a helicopter? Well sure. Almost everything I'm thinking about right now is

potential. I guess I've compared it to several people who have asked me how I'm feeling. What's it like? And the closest thing I can compare it to is, I would say, the birth of my daughter, where the cruise phase that's about eight months long, you know, is like that nine month period where you're just waiting and you're just hoping everything goes right. And then she's born. In this case, we're on the surface and it's real. And the potential is astounding. Katie Stack and I were just texting last night as we got some new images down. And we're just so excited, like kids just looking at every picture and seeing so many new things and having so many new ideas and new questions are appearing. And the potential of it all is what strikes me more than anything. We have so far to go, so much to learn.

far to go, so much to learn. And I just couldn't be more grateful to have made this transition from all the years of hard work and stress and wondering, you know, is it going to work out? How's it going to work out to now when we actually get to do this thing? It's just, it's amazing. I believe all of us at the Planetary Society were online watching the amazing revelations presented at that February 22nd media briefing. Bill, it has only been seconds since the end of that absolutely stunning media briefing by NASA, by the JPL folks, where they unveiled those videos and the microphone audio from Mars. I think that was the most awe-inspiring video I've seen since Apollo 11. unveiled those videos and the microphone audio from Mars.

I think that was the most awe-inspiring video I've seen since Apollo 11. Well, there's some other Apollo footage. It's pretty amazing where they drop the hammer. Watching the SpaceX rockets boosters come back and land is pretty, that's amazing. But this is, you're right, This is astonishing. Video from another world, supersonic parachute opens, sky crane rocket sled thing lowers rover on surface, flies away. Wow. And then we hear the wind whoosh, whoosh by.

Oh my goodness. Understand, we at the Planetary Society have been trying to get a microphone on Mars for at least 22 years. I guess 30 years, 40 years. And so there are two microphones on Mars. And there's a cost savings. They're made from off-the-shelf stuff. Just amazing that these things worked at all.

And now we have the sounds from Mars, which I guarantee you will lead to some scientific discovery, let alone engineering refinement. It's just really something, you guys. And I think as remarkable as the video is, as remarkable as the audio is, these things are, if I may employ a double negative, they ain't nothing compared with the discoveries that will be made in the coming weeks. As you all may know, a huge reason I stay in this business and stay so intimately connected with you all through the Planetary Society is because I want to find life on another world, or evidence of life rather, on another world while I'm still

alive to appreciate it. And so this spacecraft, guided by these remarkable engineers, directed by these amazing scientists, these people are going to look for evidence of life, some fossilized Mars microbes, Mars-crobes. Oh, wait, there's more, Matt. The graphics on the photometric calibration target, the radiometric calibration target, were designed by our own Mark Hilverda, our internet guy, designed the graphics, and he was directed and connected by Jim Bell. The whole thing,

Matt, is just wild. What a great day for humankind. Absolutely. Mark Hilverda, who gets his name at the end of every episode of Planetary Radio as associate producer of this series, helps us make it available to all of you every time. Bill, I already conveyed the congratulations that you had and all of us at the Planetary Society to the entire Perseverance team. Do you want to add anything to those congratulations? Thank you. Thanks to everyone who worked on this and thanks to our members who supported all this, enabled us to continue to advocate for the microphone in the right places at JPL, NASA, and around the world. You know, there's instruments from other space agencies from

around the world flying on this thing. And we rely on Mars orbiters to get the data over here to Earth. So thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. One more thing, Matt, a really compelling question that was asked in the press conference that she has asked often, why do we spend money on this? Why do we spend money on exploring other worlds when there's so many problems here on Earth? And the answer can be couched many different ways. But one of the reasons you explore is because you don't know what you're going to find. You don't really know what's over the next horizon, as our founder Bruce Murray used to say.

And if you want to get specific, everybody relies on global positioning systems. Everybody relies on the Internet. Neither of these things would exist without space exploration. And if we are to discover life on Mars, evidence of life, rather, on Mars, it will change the course of human history. It will be a very different feeling for all of us living here in the cosmos on this pale blue dot. If this spacecraft doesn't make that discovery, it will lead to whatever does someday, whatever instruments scientists, engineers do someday. Am I rambling?

It's so moving. This is the most worthy investment of our intellect and treasure. And for those of you accounting out there, the amount of money spent on these missions is almost in the noise. It's almost a roundoff error. I'm not talking about the NASA budget, which is not even half a percent of the federal budget. This is 9% of half a percent. People, this changes the world. Back to you, Matt. Thank you, Bill. I have nothing to add except that that's Bill Nye. He is the CEO of the Planetary Society. Stay with us. The winners of our Mars Poetry Competition and more are just ahead in What's Up. Planetary Radio is made possible by the generous support of listeners

like you. If you enjoy our show, if you believe in the mission of the Planetary Society, Advancing Space Exploration, I hope you will join us. We need 500 new members by March 5th to hit our goal. Your membership will power our core initiatives, exploring new worlds, Your membership will power our core initiatives, exploring new worlds, finding life, and defending our planet from asteroid threats. Sign up today at planetary.org slash join2021, and you'll receive an official membership t-shirt featuring the lovely worlds of our solar system. That's planetary.org slash join2021. Thanks. Time for What's Up on Planetary Radio, and it is going to be a decidedly Martian version of What's Up. We are joined by the chief scientist of the Planetary Society. How are you, Bruce? Bruce Betts is here.

Spiffy keen, poetic. I'm just glad we didn't have to write poems because that might have been painful. I am too. I'm just amazed by the number and quality and length of the poetry. Thank you to everyone who's contributed. We'll get back to that. How about I tell you about the poetic night sky right now? Can't wait.

Okay. So we've got Mars in the evening sky in the southwest looking reddish. Over to its left is similar looking reddish Aldebaran, the star. They will be growing closer together until mid-March, although they won't be super close. And then the pre-dawn, it's that time. Promised you more planets. Now that Mars has passed its publicity, major push of publicity, other planets are allowed to come up. So we've got Jupiter and Saturn very low in the eastern sky.

So still very tough to see. But in the pre-dawn, getting higher and higher every night. Jupiter is lower and brighter. Saturn is higher and yellowish. And Mercury, also very low down pre-dawn, actually very near Jupiter. In fact, very close to Mercury the morning of March 5th. It will be less than a degree away. Jupiter is much brighter of the two. You might want to use binoculars, make sure the sun's not up yet. But look, binoculars, you'll need a clear view to the eastern horizon.

And then I will be annoying you talking about Jupiter and Saturn being in the sky for months to come. Mercury will disappear in a couple weeks and go back to hiding. I would hate for us to be accused of being overly enamored of Mars. We love all planets equally. Yes. Yes. Yes, we do. And a few moons too. We move on to this week in space history. First, I'll stop laughing because a sad note.

1966, Gemini 9 primary crew Charles Bassett and Elliot See were killed in a T-38 plane crash. On to much happier news. 2007, New Horizons flew past Jupiter, got cool pictures and data while they were going. On to random space fact. Random space fact. As of February 2021, in other words now, there have been 101 crewed space flights to the International Space Station. That's so impressive.

And all of them successful. And well, depending on how you define success. There was one abort. In fact, I don't actually know where the abort, the Soyuz abort counts. So somewhere between 100 and 101. There's a lot. There's been a lot. And it kind of makes you wonder, though, doesn't it, how many uncrewed space flights there have been? Well, we'll come back to that.

That's going to be very handy. I forgot about that fairly recent Soyuz abort. At least it worked exactly the way that it was supposed to. Yes, it was very successful from that standpoint. Obviously, it kept the crew safe. So in that respect, perfectly successful, but not to the space station. Let us tackle the trivia contest. We have two trivia contest answers because we're so overwhelmed by poetry. We put off the winners of that until this week. So let's start with the more recent and simpler, at least less time consuming one, which was how many lasers are on board the Perseverance rover? There was a complexity yet again that I didn't think about. But how do we do in the answers? Let me describe that complexity to you. It came from at least one person, and there might have been another that I missed. Ben Drout in Iowa said there were four lasers. He counted three on

Perseverance itself, which I'm sure you will describe to us. But it turns out there is a small laser altimeter on the Ingenuity helicopter. And he says it may not be part of the rover, but Ingenuity is on board, quote unquote, as of time question was asked. So it's altimeter counts. That's true. And I forgot about that thinking of just perseverance, but I'm glad our listeners didn't. So we will take three or four as the correct answer in the contest. Anyone who got chosen by random.org. Do you want me to describe stuff or you want to talk to people? Well, I have a poem that'll help us get started with this. It comes from our- Another poem? Yes. I can't help myself. I guess he can't help himself either. Dave Fairchild in Kansas,

with apologies to Yankee Doodle. I'll do my best with this. Perseverance went to Mars, riding on a rocket, had three lasers, microphones, and cameras in its pocket. SuperCam has two hooked up. They're both a trailblazer. Sherlock has the other one, and it's a UV laser. Yes, and as he so often does, he's captured the essence of the answers. There are two lasers in SuperCam, one infrared and one visible, and then one in Sherlock instrument, a UV laser. And one on Ingenuity, the helicopter, which as of right now is indeed still on board or under board the rover.

Here's our winner. It's a first time. He is a first time winner, Sam Kogar in West Virginia, who gave us the number three and adds, I love the show. Thanks for always letting me know what's up. Congratulations, Sam. You're not only what's up now, you have won yourself actually two things. A Planet Fest t-shirt, PlanetFest t-shirt, PlanetFest 21 t-shirt. And by the way, we sure had a good time over the weekend doing PlanetFest. And thank you to all of you who attended.

Thank you again to all of you who have written notes to us since the end of PlanetFest and the landing of Perseverance, of course. One came from Joe Ladd. PlanetFest and the landing of Perseverance, of course. One came from Joe Ladd. PlanetFest 21 was a blast. Hats off to Matt, Bruce, the entire TPS team for making such a wonderfully educational, interactive, and entertaining event. But back to Sam, he does get that T-shirt, and he's going to get a copy of The Big Book of Mars by Mark Hartsman, that delightful book by Mark.

And Mark, of course, was one of our participants in that Planet Fest 21 weekend. Congratulations. I got one more that I'll read to you from Laura Dodd in California. Bruce, I would use a high-powered laser to coax Martian cats out to play, proving that there is indeed superior life on the red planet. Hmm. Maybe all those canali are just scratch marks.

Those are some big, big cats that I don't want to meet. All right. We will go now on to the poetry contest, which most of you expected would be resolved last week. But we really needed the extra time because, as Bruce said, we were inundated by excellent verse in both quantity and quality. But we have reached our decision. We've reached our rendezvous with destiny.

So has perseverance. We start with two runners up. This one from Mark Little in Northern Ireland that he titled The Journey. Matt and Bruce went out to play with dreams inside their pocket. With friends in tow, an H2O, they built themselves a rocket. Ham sandwich wrapped inside, they strapped their torsos three to one. A distant glow, they pointed to. Their journey had begun. Sailors and conquerors, mappers, trackers, and birds had been this way before them in stories they had heard. Months passed, along with some bad jokes they told along the way.

Reverse engine burst, heat dispersed. I know. Upon their landing day. Exiting the spacecraft, grinning like two cats. How random, Matt. We made it, Bruce! As on Big Joe they sat. Enthralled and in high spirit. Such an

opportunity! But they let out a sigh with a tear in their eye at what they didn't see. Marvin didn't greet them. No John Carter or Mark Watney, no Robinson Crusoe or his chimpanzee. In fact, no one from TV. Overcome by their emotions, back home they determined to go. TV's just lies, the two of them cried. Let's stick to- Let's stick to radio.

All right. Thank you, Mark. One correction there. He didn't have a chimpanzee, Robinson Crusoe on Mars. He had a monkey. I think it was a spider monkey, but definitely not a chimp. The chimp would have stolen all his oxygen and made it stick instead of the monkey just messing around with the machine. Yeah, the chimpanzee would have made no sense whatsoever. It would have rendered the story completely unrealistic. Good point. Bruce, you got one for us. From Mel Powell in California. A short one. Enter, descend, land. Arriving to visit Mars. Seven minutes. Ah!

It fits. It's a haiku 575. It's just that last syllable. It was only one, but it just lasted a while. I love it. Hey, we're on to the winners. We said we would pick five winners, all of whom will receive a PlanetFest 21 t-shirt. So here's the first. Congratulations, Wesley Haynes in Georgia. First, congratulations, Wesley Haynes in Georgia. Red dot. Adrift like me in lonely space, a long way from the warming sun, I left the earth, my home behind, to rendezvous with you someday.

Red disk. As I draw nigh, excitement builds. How large you've grown in recent days. I see your moons, those little points that whirl around, around again. Red globe. You're now a proper world indeed. I see your mountains, craters, clouds. All systems go, no turning back, here goes. The fiery plunge has come. Red land, I'm here at last, and what a sight, this place, so stark, so cold, so grand. I must unlock its mysteries, that's why my maker sent me here. I think about them frequently, those humans back on lovely earth. Will they someday, so many years from now,

consider this at last, Red Home? Congratulations again, Wesley. We have some special guests to help us out with this. Here to read one from Todd Barnell in Arizona is the Planetary Society's Chief Operating Officer, Jennifer Vaughn. A fresh air rising, a new generation lights, a candle to the dark between worlds. A fresh eye peering into an ancient air, a dissipated stream girding an ancient world, capturing fresh hope in a young girl's eye, gazing at a rose suspended in desert sky. All right, here's our next winner, Chris Mills from Virginia. Congratulations. Sisters three, broken free from the earth. Toward the stars, out to Mars, they will surf. Rivals here now appear hand in hand. Humankind intertwined on wild land. Sister one, in her run, hopes to spy.

Seasons turn, gases churn, and dust fly. Sister two splits in two, one for sky, one for ground, to drive around Plenishay. Sister three rovingly will embrace Jezero, water flow, and life's trace. She will bring a flying thing while she's there, learning more how to explore from the air. Back at home, our eyes roam across the night. Small we are, seeing far with each flight. Chris, congratulations. Here's our fourth entry, and this time it's our colleague Sarah Alamiri, who is the Society's Digital Community Manager. Sarah chose to read this work by frequent contributor Gene Lewin in Washington State. Early mariners sailed celestial seas.

Pursuit of knowledge was the wind that blowed. Vikings followed to distant shores where water may once have flowed. An inspiration of chronicled fictitious tales, authors to paper put pen, foretelling vast possibilities, not as never, but when. Curiosity still drives us on, and opportunity affords us more. With perseverance we will travel far to find what Mars has in store. Thank you, Gene. Last but far from least, we got this lovely poem from Alice Weller, who is six years old.

It will be read by the Society's Communication Strategy and Canadian Space Policy Advisor, Kate Howells. Little flying rocket, zooming through the stars. Is it very dark out there on your way to Mars? Will you find an alien or fossils or a bug? If I find one when I get there, I'll give it a hug That's it, PlanetFest t-shirts to all five of you Congratulations Bruce, as you know, we couldn't pick a favorite among these.

So we turned once again to our old friend, Random.org, to pick the grand prize winner for us. That winner is going to get a copy of Linda Schweitzer's brilliant book, Cosmic Odyssey, How Intrepid Astronomers at Palomar Observatory

Changed Our View of the Universe. And Chris Miller in Virginia, that's you. Congratulations once again. Great job, everyone. And thank you to all of you who did not get yours read by us during the show. We appreciate you one and all. Great, great work. I am just amazed by the listeners to this show, as always. On to a new trivia contest with a shorter answer than that one.

How many uncrewed space flights have there been to the International Space Station? That's it. Oh, that's it. That's simple. Go to planetary.org slash radio contest. Wow.

Okay, that makes it easy. You've got until Wednesday, March 3rd at 8 a.m. Pacific time to get us this answer. You may win yourself a Planetary Society rubber asteroid. They're just that popular. We're done. All right, everybody, go out there, look up at the night sky and think about doggy belly rubs. Thank you and good night. Ah, they love those belly rubs, don't they? Talking about dogs here, right? That's Bruce Betts. He's the chief scientist for the Planetary Society who joins us every week for What's Up. It's time for a Mars party with the amoeba people.

Here's their brand new tune by that name. Planetary Radio is produced by the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California and is made possible by its members. Mark Hilverda, yeah, that Mark Hilverda, is our associate producer. Josh Doyle composed our theme, which is arranged and performed by Peter Schlosser. Add Ares.

Take it away, Mebs. Perseverance traveling through the emptiness of space. And when she lands, will she find a microbial Martian race? Nobody knows for sure. And NASA has high hopes. But whether or not we'll find those little guys, there's one thing that we know. Mars party, ooh, Mars party, ooh. When Perseverance lands in those ancient Martian sands. Mars party, ooh, Mars party, ooh. When Perseverance lands In those ancient Martian sands Red Rover, Red Rover

Send Perseverance over And even though we're pretty sure she won't find A single batch of clover In Jezero Crater Where Perseverance will alight Perhaps we'll find what's left behind Of ancient Martian life Mars party

Ooh, Mars party Ooh When Perseverance lands In those ancient Martian sands Mars party ooh, Mars Party, ooh When perseverance lands in those ancient Martian sands Mars Party, ooh, Mars Party, ooh When perseverance lands in those ancient Martian sands Red Rover, Red Rover, send perseverance over Red Rover, Red Rover, send perseverance over Red Rover, Red Rover, send perseverance over Red Rover, Red Rover, send Perseverance over. Red Rover, Red Rover, send Perseverance over.

When Perseverance lands in those ancient Martian sands. When Perseverance lands in those ancient Martian sands.