Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
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Built for Mars
By Scott Hamilton
Feb. 17, 2021, © Leeham News: Ever since watching the movie and reading the book, The Martian, I’ve been fascinated about all things Mars.
The Mars rover Perseverance under development at the Jet Propulsion Lab. Source: National Geographic.
Previous movies were contrived sci-fi trash. The Martian was fiction, to be sure, but it was science-based. A NASA official told me the agency cooperated with the book author and the movie producers. And John Shannon, the lead of Boeing’s giant SLS launcher for a Mars mission, also told me the book and movie were based on science.
NASA and Boeing in 2016 outlined some of the challenges in this powerpoint.
Built for Mars is a 90 minute chronicle of NASA’s current mission to Mars. The Perseverance rover is the first of three missions over 10 years to return samples from Mars to Earth for scientific study. Produced by National Geographic and premiering Feb. 18, the challenges of putting together this mission are immense.