NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars

A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet this morning, taking the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to retrieve rocks that could tell scientists if life ever existed on Mars.

Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, cheered and exchanged fists and high-fived in triumph and relief as they received confirmation that the six-wheeled Perseverance had landed on the red planet, during long time a death trap for incoming spaceship.

It took 11 and a half full minutes of tension for the signal to reach Earth.

“Landing confirmed! Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars,” announced flight controller Swati Mohan.

After landing, Perseverance began tweeting home, including the first photos of the surface.

The landing marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week.

Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China entered orbit around Mars on successive days last week.

All three missions took off in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, traveling some 300 million miles in nearly seven months.

Perseverance, the largest and most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, each from the US.

The car-sized vehicle, powered by plutonium, reached Jezero crater and hit NASA’s smallest and most complicated target: a 5×4-mile swath in an ancient river delta filled with wells, cliffs and rock fields.

Scientists believe that if life flourished on Mars, it would have happened between 3 and 4 billion years ago, when water was still flowing across the planet.

For the next two years, Percy, as he is known, will use his measuring arm to drill and collect rock samples with possible signs of microscopic past life.

Three to four dozen chalk-sized samples will be sealed in tubes and set aside on Mars for a spacecraft to retrieve and take home to another spacecraft.

The goal is to return them to Earth as early as 2031. Scientists hope to answer one of the central questions of theology, philosophy and space exploration. “Are we alone in this kind of vast cosmic desert, just flying through space, or are we much more ordinary life?

Does it arise simply when and where conditions are conducive? “Said deputy project scientist Ken Williford.” We are really about to potentially answer these huge questions. “

China’s spacecraft includes a smaller rover that will also search for evidence of life, if it does so safely from orbit in May or June.

The perseverance was by itself during the descent of the “seven minutes of terror” described by NASA.

Flight controllers waited helplessly as the pre-programmed spacecraft struck the Martian thin atmosphere of 95 percent carbon dioxide at 19,500 km / h, or 16 times the speed of sound, slowing down as it plummeted.

He launched his 21-meter parachute, dropped his heat shield, and then used a rocket-guided platform known as an overhead crane to lower the rover the last 18 meters to the surface.

It was the second time that NASA reached Mars via an aerial crane.

The Curiosity rover pioneered the technique in 2012; the vehicle is still prowling through a crater.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX congratulated NASA on the successful landing, saying, “Welcome to Mars.”

Mars has proven to be a treacherous place: In less than three months in 1999, an American spacecraft was destroyed while entering orbit because engineers had mixed English and metric units, and a U.S. lander crashed on Mars after its engines will shut down prematurely.

Perseverance will conduct an experiment in which it will convert small amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into oxygen, a process that could be of great help to future astronauts by providing breathable air and an ingredient for rocket fuel.

The rover is also equipped with a record 25 cameras and two microphones, many of them turned on during the descent. Among the never-before-seen sights NASA intends to send back in the next few days: the massive supersonic parachute opening and the ground closing in. “A feast for the eyes and ears. It’s really going to be spectacular,” observed Jim Bell, senior scientist at Arizona State University, a pair of mast cameras that will serve as the rover’s eyes.

NASA is partnering with the European Space Agency to bring the rocks home.

The Perseverance mission alone costs nearly $ 3 billion. The only way to confirm, or rule out, signs of past lives is to analyze the samples in the best laboratories in the world.

Instruments small enough to be sent to Mars would not have the necessary precision. “It is truly the most extraordinary exploration campaign, incredibly complicated and it will be the one that will make history,” said David Parker, director of human and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency. he said the day before the landing.

– Associated Press