AstroTalk Episode February 25, 2021

Perseverance Rover. De-Contaminating Perseverance. 26 Month Window To Launch To Mars. 7 Minutes Of Terror To Land On Mars. The Experiences Of Previous Rovers On Mars. The Cambrian explosion. Where Elements Come From. Comparing the Big Band to the Cyclic Model. Comparing The Big Band To The Cyclic Model. Reconstruction. 4,000 Virtual Universes.

2:02pm - 2:59pm

The Perseverance Rover is very complex. The most complex machinery ever sent into space. Its also the cleanest thing on Earth ever made. Astronomers do not want to contaminate Mars with Earth stuff. Per has 43 tubes into which it will collect samples of Mars, send them into Mars orbit and then bring them back to Earth. Astronomers also had to filt Per launch into a tight window, or they would have to launch 26 months later if they missed the launch window. 7 minutes of terror discussed. How refinements were built into Perseverance, based on the experiences of previous Mars rovers. the Cambrian explosion and Convergence. How species evolve similar solutions or evolutions even though their common ancestor did not have these things. So astronomers think life, if it exists in any other planet in the universe, could possibly creete the same solutions into its evolution that have evolved on Earth. . Comparing the Big Band to the Cyclic Model. Branes, Membranes and Gravitational Waves. Reconstructing or explaining how the universe began. Astronomers create 4,000 virtual universes to try to reconstruct how the universe began.