The Institute of Navigation will host the Navigation of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover from Earth to Jezero Crater webinar on Tuesday, March 23, at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

The webinar will be presented by Gerhard Kruizinga, navigation engineer, Mars 2020 Navigation Team chief, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and moderated by Frank van Diggelen, ION president.

“We are honored to have the Navigation team chief of this historic mission, Gerhard Kruizinga, present his first-hand account of getting NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover from the launch pad to a safe landing on Mars,” van Diggelen said.

The precision landing required very high-precision interplanetary navigation and accommodation of entry guidance target requirements, planetary protection requirements and propellant allocation for trajectory correction maneuvers.

The main navigation objective was to predict the trajectory accuracy at atmospheric entry, such that the entry descent and landing system requirements were satisfied for a safe landing. This presentation discusses the planning to meet all navigation requirements and the actual navigation performance during cruise and landing.

Register here for the webinar.