NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully landed on the surface of Mars. Perseverance survived a blazing seven-minute plunge through the Martian atmosphere. The rover made a clean landing, which sets the stage for a year’s journey to scour Mars’ Jezero Crater for ancient signs of life.
The landing at 3:55PM ET marks NASA’s sixth triumphant landing on the Red Planet. The rover is worth $2.7 billion and is essentially a 2,263-pound lab on wheels; for the next several years.
The Jezero Crater posed as the most challenging landing site NASA has encountered. Perseverance had to steer clear of the crater’s massive boulders and dangerous sandy pits to reach its landing point. Scientists believe that the 28-mile-wide crater used to be a river delta 3.5 billion years ago- a potential goldmine for fossilised microorganisms.
