The Latest Mars Landing

April 21, 2021 • Written by Doménica Alcivar

The 18th of February, 2021 will forever be marked as another huge milestone for humanity and space exploration as NASA’s rover, Perseverance, landed on Mars. Perseverance is the first rover to land on the red planet since Curiosity’s landing back in 2012. First launched into space on the 30th of July, 2020, Perseverance then traveled 293 million miles for 203 days to get to Mars safely. Following the most nerve wrecking seven minute long landing process, Perseverance was able to capture and send the first few images, just a few minutes after landing on Jezero Crater.

NASA has sent the new and improved rover to Mars for a mission to search for any direct evidence of life on the planet. Scientists believe that 3.5 billion years ago Jezero’s Crater was once filled with ancient water, thus it’s attraction as a point of interest to explore. It’s a possibility that microbial life once lived in the crater, so using Perseverance’s technology, scientists will be able to study the crater and collect rock and soil samples.

Another aspect that makes Perseverance’s landing so amazing is that it also brought with it; a small helicopter: Ingenuity. Perseverance will have to roam around the planet in order to find a good spot where Ingenuity can successfully complete flight tests before officially launching. Ingenuity will be looking for new areas on Mars for possible future missions for rovers and hopefully, humans. To find more information on the landing and the ongoing discoveries of Curiosity, Perseverance, and Ingenuity, you can go on https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance