The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has confirmed that earth’s distant neighbour Mars had received the Perseverance rover.
This followed a shaky landing phase called the “seven minutes of terror”.
NASA’s Operation Lead Swati Mohan said, “Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking signs of past life,”, to a cheering team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory headquarters.
The Perseverance rover is the fifth to set down on Mars, the first was in 1997, all feats achieved by the US.
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About Perseverance Rover
The six-wheeled robot weighs a ton and is about the size of an SUV. It has 19 cameras, two microphones, and other state-of-the-art equipment.
According to NASA, “A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life.
“The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.”
Buttressing NASA’s words was the agency’s geologist Katie Stack Morgan who said, “The question of whether there’s life beyond Earth is one of the most fundamental and essential questions we can ask.
“Our ability to ask this question and develop the scientific investigations and technology to answer it is one of the things that make us as a species so unique.”
