NASA Perseverance Rover Lands Successfully on Mars

 

Mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California quickly received data from Mars satellites and the rover itself confirming a good touchdown, including the first images from Perseverance: scenes of a desolate, dusty landscape that looks dangerous to humans but full of potential for this scientist-explorer.

"We got it. We're there," JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning, who has worked on Mars landings for decades, said after landing. "This is so exciting and the team is beside themselves. This is so surreal. So much has been riding on this."

Just minutes after the landing, Perseverance continued sending images from its hazard-detecting navigational cameras.

The 2,200-pound rover, nearly identical though slightly larger than its 2012 Curiosity predecessor, has several suites of onboard instruments that will be used to find, analyze, and store rock samples. A drill on the end of its "arm" is designed to grab core samples, while systems that use X-rays and ultraviolet spectrometers can conduct scientific investigations right there on the surface.

There's some forward-thinking, too: Perseverance can not only store its core samples in tubes and put those in its "body," but it can later remove and scatter them around the surface of Jezero Crater for a yet-to-be-scheduled sample return mission. Though Perseverance is no slouch with its onboard instruments, scientists hope to use their own tools and equipment on samples obtained directly from Mars.

Seeking the first-ever flight on another planet

Nicknamed "Percy" by her Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission managers, NASA's latest rover isn't alone in Jezero Crater. A small, 4-pound helicopter named Ingenuity hitched a ride down to the surface on the rover's "belly."

Ingenuity's mission is simple and unrelated to the larger science objectives: conduct the first-ever flight on another world. To accomplish this in an atmosphere just 1% as dense as Earth's, NASA had to build a small vehicle with large carbon fiber blades and make it light enough to lift off.

Using two cameras, the small helicopter will attempt the first test flights over a yet-to-be-determined 30-day period. Ingenuity could offer robotic and human explorers of the future a critical high-level view of the planet.