After a seven-month journey and a terrifying ‘seven minutes of terror descent’ from the outer atmosphere to the surface of Mars the NASA Perseverance Mars lunar rover has touched down safely on the Martian surface and has sent back its first images. During the descent everything functions as expected landing the Mars Rover in the designated Jezero Crater in its search for life on Mars.
The NASA Perseverance rover touched down at around 3:55PM ET, following a smooth descent to the surface. Now the journey to Mars is over and the Rover has successfully landed on the Martian surface the real mission begins to explore the Martian surface to find signs of bacterial life on the dry bed of the Jezero Crater which was once a Martian lake. About the size of a car, the 2,263-pound (1,026-kilogram) robotic geologist and astrobiologist will undergo several weeks of testing before it begins its two-year science investigation of Mars’ Jezero Crater. Below is the first image sent back from the rover confirming its safe touchdown on the surface of Mars.
“The largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world touched down on Mars Thursday, after a 203-day journey traversing 293 million miles (472 million kilometers). Confirmation of the successful touchdown was announced in mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST). Packed with groundbreaking technology, the Mars 2020 mission launched July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Perseverance rover mission marks an ambitious first step in the effort to collect Mars samples and return them to Earth.”
“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk. “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.”
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