Mars Rover Perseverance Hours Away From Daredevil Landing Attempt On Red Planet
02/18/2021 03:23 am ET
The most advanced robotic astrobiology lab ever flown to another world is nearing the end of its seven-month, 293-million-mile journey.
Steve Gorman
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A full scale model of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is displayed at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory on February 16, 2021 in Pasadena, California.
The primary objective of the two-year, $2.7 billion mission is a search for evidence that microbial organisms may have flourished on Mars some 3 billion years ago, when the planet was warmer, wetter and presumably more hospitable to life.
Larger and more sophisticated than any of the four mobile science vehicles NASA landed on Mars before it, Perseverance is designed to extract rock samples for future analysis back on Earth ― the first such specimens ever collected by humankind from another planet.
“I can tell you that Perseverance is operating perfectly right now, that all systems are go for landing,” Jennifer Trosper, deputy project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles, told an online briefing.
Mission engineers sent the spacecraft a command on Monday night activating onboard systems for atmospheric entry, descent and landing, Trosper said.
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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mars-rover-perseverance_n_602e21ebc5b66dfc101c56e3
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