Fri 19 February 2021:
After a nerve-wracking seven-minute descent, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars on Thursday afternoon, beginning what is slated to be an almost two-year search for ancient life on the red planet.
The rover touched down at the massive Jezero Crater, which scientists believe could contain the signs of ancient microbial life for which Perseverance is looking. The crater was once the site of a sprawling lake and river delta that theoretically would have hosted optimal conditions for microorganisms to live and be preserved.
Hello, world. My first look at my forever home. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/dkM9jE9I6X
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021
“Hello, world. My first look at my forever home,” the rover’s Twitter account said in a post that was accompanied by a black and white image of the planet’s surface. “And another look behind me. Welcome to Jezero Crater. #CountdownToMars.”
The highly-advanced rover is slated to carry out a mission that will last for one Mars year, or roughly 687 Earth days.
“What an amazing day,” a joyful Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s acting administrator, said shortly after the landing was confirmed.
“What an amazing team, the work through all the adversity and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on Mars, plus the challenges of COVID … just an amazing accomplishment,” he added.
Within minutes of landing, the rover, nicknamed “Percy,” sent its first image back to Earth.
Touchdown confirmed. The #CountdownToMars is complete, but the mission is just beginning. pic.twitter.com/UvOyXQhhN9
— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021
Its journey to Mars took nearly seven months, and it will now begin the process of collecting rock core samples that will be stored in metal tubes for return to Earth on future missions. The samples are key to understanding whether life once existed on the planet the US now hopes to send humans to as early as the 2030s.
Perseverance, which is NASA’s most advanced rover to date, is being tasked with four core missions, including testing oxygen production in the Martian atmosphere to prepare for manned missions.
#MarsPerseverance | NASA’s rover lands safely on Mars pic.twitter.com/nXmYrqQVAR
— ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) February 18, 2021
To carry out its mission, the small-car-sized rover is carrying a slew of sophisticated technologies including a helicopter known as Ingenuity, which is slated to carry out the first powered flight on the red planet. The drone will take first-of-their-kind visual images of the planet’s surface that can be relayed back to Earth.
Perseverance is also carrying microphones that will allow for the first audio from the planet to be heard by humans.
NASA’s Perseverance rover lands safely on Mars, Feb. 16, 2021, in an illustration released by NASA.
“Mars is hard and we never take success for granted,” Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, said during a Tuesday news conference.
Zurbuchen added that they will land on Mars “with cameras on, so the entire world is inspired with us as we do new and tough things and demonstrate these new technologies.”
“Because whether it’s on the red planet or here at home on our blue marble, science can bring us together and create solutions to challenges that seem impossible at first,” Zurbuchen said.
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