NASA chose Jezero Crater as the landing site for the Perseverance rover with good reason. This will be the first mission since the Viking 1 and 2 landers in the late 1970s/early 1980s to do so. While Curiosity focuses on finding evidence of past habitability, which it has done, Perseverance will be looking for direct evidence of life itself. Order yours before they’re gone!ĭesign-wise, the Perseverance rover is very similar to the Curiosity rover, currently in Gale Crater, but has some different science instruments. We’re also still waiting for a glimpse of Perseverance on the ground using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which can share at least low-resolution images with us in the coming days. Editor’s Note: the video is now available.

The reason for this is a lag in data relay from Mars to Earth, which is slower than even old dial-up connections. There wasn’t, however, a livestream of the footage, as we’re accustomed to with International Space Station events and rocket launches from Earth. We’re going to be able to watch ourselves land for the first time on another planet. Lori Glaze, who heads the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told reporters: This suite of technology will provide us with the most detailed video and photo records of landing on a neighboring world yet. Then, beneath it is a downward-pointing camera on the descent stage, which is supposed to have filmed its first touch-contact with the ground on Mars. It recorded a view of the parachutes deploying as it slowed to land. A camera mounted on the back shell of the spacecraft is pointed upward. Perseverance’s flashy new cameras are expected to have captured much of the landing process. #CountdownToMars /dkM9jE9I6XĪnd another look behind me. NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover February 18, 2021 NASA flight engineers cheer as touchdown is confirmed on Mars. You’re going to see a lot of happy people no matter what, once we get this thing on the surface safely. I don’t think that Covid is going to be able to stop us from jumping up and down and fist bumping. Perseverance deputy project manager Matt Wallace said: Touchdown!Īt the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, coronavirus protocols are still in effect at mission control, but not even a pandemic could dampen the celebration. Finally, the hovering-landing sky crane system began its task of lowering the rover the rest of the way to the ground for a soft, gentle landing.

A 70-foot (21-meter) diameter parachute deployed to slow the craft further, bringing its descent to a crawl. Essentially, it scanned and analyzed the terrain below, then matched it up with maps in its database to prepare for touchdown. Then, at an altitude of about 1 mile (1.5 km), the descent module fired its engines, while a new terrain relative navigation system kicked in to identify a safe landing spot. But the rover hit the Martian atmosphere traveling at almost 12,000 miles per hour (19,000 kmh), streaking across the sky as its protective heat shield helped to slow it down. Space engineers refer to it as seven minutes of terror. The first raw images have started coming in … Perseverance set down in Jezero Crater, just north of Mars’ equator. Confirmation of the successful touchdown was announced at mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California.

It traveled 293 million miles (472 million km) – over 203 days – to get to Mars. Perseverance is the largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world. It was the first rover to land since Curiosity touched down in 2012. On February 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover – formerly called Mars 2020 – became the first artificial object to land on Mars since the Insight Mars lander in 2018. See the rover’s shadow? Image via NASA TV.Ĭlick here for a cool video showing Perseverance’s descent and landing | Perseverance’s first raw image from the surface of Mars, acquired just minutes after landing today.

Nasa mars landing