NASA Lands Perseverance Rover Safely On Mars
NASA’s newest rover touched down safely on the surface of Mars on Thursday, completing a 293-million-mile journey through space and setting the stage for a mission that seeks to find evidence of ancient extraterrestrial life.
The six wheels of the 2,260-pound Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater, a former lake bed once fed by flowing water that scientists say would have been a welcoming home for microbes in Mars’ warmer, wetter past. If they’re right, the remains of those long-dead microbes should now reside in the sediments there.
Ecstatic team members in Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge could not hug or high-five one another, as they normally would in non-pandemic times. But even their doubled-up masks — whose top layer was adorned with a stylized image of the rover couldn’t hide the smiles on their faces as they clapped and cheered, a few feet apart.
Some bumped fists with those around them while others shook them triumphantly in the air after mission officials confirmed the rover’s landing at 12:55 p.m.
“NASA works,” said Rob Manning, JPL’s chief engineer and a veteran of many Mars missions. “When we put our arms together and our hands together and our brains together, we can succeed. This is what NASA does. This is what we can do as a country on all of the problems we have. We need to work together to do these kinds of things and make success happen.”
“NASA works. When we put our arms together and our hands together and our brains together, we can succeed. This is what NASA does.”@NASAJPL chief engineer and landing veteran Rob Manning celebrates #NASAPersevere’s successful #CountdownToMars: pic.twitter.com/Bo74pC4xLO
— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021
Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said he got a call from President Biden about an hour after landing to send his regards to “Percy” and his compliments to the team.
Within moments of reaching its new home, Perseverance transmitted two images of the surrounding Martian terrain.
“You can see the shadow of the vehicle and you can look out into the horizon, and that is just a great thing to see,” said Matt Wallace, deputy project manager for the overall Mars 2020 mission.
Perseverance, the star of Mars 2020, survived a hair-raising arrival procedure that’s often referred to as the “seven minutes of terror.”
This final stage of the 6½-month journey involved a dramatic deceleration from a speed of more than 12,000 miles per hour at the top of the Martian atmosphere to a mere 1.7 mph when it was just above the surface.
The carefully choreographed routine required a heat shield, a supersonic parachute, retrorockets and the “skycrane” maneuver, which involved lowering the rover from midair on a set of roughly 21-foot-long tethers.
