The most advanced Martian of the space agency has reached the red planet and landed on it as expected. A year of research can begin: was there life on Mars?

NASA’s Perseverance device successfully landed on Mars on Thursday around 9:57 p.m. Not long after, the most advanced Martian sent his first image, still in black and white, of the surface of the red planet:

At the end of Perseverance’s landing process, he sent a signal that ensured that the spacecraft landed in order on the planet, and space agency experts celebrated by clapping at NASA headquarters. The signals, by the way, are specific for many people to travel: they have to wait a little more than 11 minutes to get from Mars to Earth.

Perseverance is the fifth American Martian; Last July, it was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with an Atlas-V launch vehicle, meaning it reached the red planet after a seven-month journey. Events turned exciting Thursday as the “cockpit” carrying Perseverance approached the planet, then completed carefully planned phases, entered the atmosphere, opened its parachute, and landed. Actually, of course, it wasn’t that easy, especially since the robot did everything on its own. These moments were called NASA People Seven Minutes of Terror.

Perseverance landed in the Jezero crater, which, after lengthy deliberation, was expertly selected from approximately 28 possible sites. According to previous theories, the area could have been covered with water billions of years before, so even microbial life could have developed there. Perseverance will mainly deal with this in the next period and will of course collect samples as well. Its mission will be one Martian year, corresponding to approximately 687 Earth days.

The new Martian is NASA’s most advanced device to date – over a ton on Earth, but Mars only has a 400-pound off-road-sized Perseverance 23 (!) Camera and at least three dozen sample storages due to gravitational differences. The spacecraft also housed microphones and weather forecast units. It does not work with solar panels, but with a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that, according to conservative estimates, can work for up to 14 years. The rolling lab is driven at 152 meters per hour on six titanium spoked wheels. It is also important that a small helicopter also travel in perseverance: this is ingenuity,

it is also the first device that man will fly on another planet.

You can read more about the engineering part of the instruments in our interview with Mohamed Abid, a key landing engineer.

The construction, development and operation of the Perseverance technologies cost NASA more than $ 2.4 billion. And the first year of the mission could consume an additional $ 300 million. The Martian’s name, by the way, was not invented by the space agency, but by a seventh grader, Alexander Mather. The boy’s idea was selected from the recommendations of 28,000 other applicants.

Interestingly, Perseverance also has its own Twitter channel, which is also worth pursuing for potential discoveries and photos. In one of the publications that many like, he writes that he is safe on Mars and that a little perseverance, referring to the name of the robot, can take a person anywhere. (Of course, the inputs are not made by the robot, but by NASA employees.)

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