(Thread) Continuing down the EDL sequence of #Mars2020 #MarsPerseverance, how was the Skycrane phase prepared? Obviously, it worked on @MarsCuriosity , was there anything to improve? Apparently, yes. @ATAEngineering performed studies with @MSCSoftware ADAMS to simulate the phase.
To simulate the event, a technique called multibody simulation is used (ADAMS is a software dedicated to that). Basically it's a physics simulator to perform analyses in time-domain. That's jargon for "it's a sandbox for engineers".
Because we cannot know in advance what the exact conditions for the landing will be, engineers resort to "Monte Carlo simulation". That's jargon for "we are running thousands of calculations with changes on the initial assumptions to cover all cases".
The #Perseverance model was refined with data from Curiosity's Skycrane phase. Updates included changes in bridle modelling and wheel dynamics modelling (source: G. Antoun, 2020) 
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