On October 8, 2020, with COVID-19 safety protocols in place, team members of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission waited for a reply from the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) suite onboard the spacecraft, which is currently en route to the Red Planet.
MEDLI2 is a collection of sensors that will measure aerothermal environments and thermal protection system material performance during the atmospheric entry phase of the Mars 2020 mission.
The sensors successfully passed a battery of environmental tests before being installed on the Mars 2020 heat shield and backshell to ensure they could withstand launch and the harsh conditions of space.
During the recent MEDLI2 cruise checkout, the team at the Flight Mission Support Center at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, received data back from the spacecraft for the first time since the rover launched in July.