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What's it Like Landing on Mars?

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We Asked a NASA Technologist.

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It's an intense, challenging and exciting\h
series of events. NASA's most recent Mars

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rover, Perseverance, slowed from nearly 13,000\h
miles an hour to a soft landing on the surface

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in about seven minutes. It involved\ha
parachute, thrusters and even a sky\hcrane.

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But the majority of that deceleration was\h
caused by the Martian atmosphere creating drag

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on the rover's heat shield and that heat shield\h
went through a lot to keep the spacecraft safe.

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Understanding what the heat shield experienced\h
during entry can help us design more efficient

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heat shields for future missions. That's why\h
we installed MEDLI2, a set of temperature and

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pressure sensors spread across the inside of the\h
heat shield that measured the extreme conditions

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experienced during Perseverance's descent\h
to Mars. With the data collected from MEDLI2,

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we'll be able to improve sizing predictions for\h
future heat shields and save spacecraft mass for

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scientific instruments, supplies and even humans. 
So,\hwhat's it like landing on mars? It's hot and very

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challenging and that's why we're working hard\h
to make the process better for future missions.