NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars

Mars rover Perseverance, NASA’s most sophisticated rover, has landed on the red planet on Thursday. Perseverance is NASA’s first mission that will search for microbial life on Mars. The rover, which was in space since July, will explore Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake that existed 3.9 billion years ago.

Perseverance will also collect rock samples over several years that will be sent back to Earth in the 2030s for further investigation. The rover will be digging its first samples in summer.

Many space enthusiasts tuned in via NASA’s public TV channel, their website and app, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion or THETA TV to watch the rover’s landing.

Perseverance’s top speed is 0.1 miles per hour- which is faster than any of its predecessors. It is as big as an SUV and weighs a ton. Besides its long robotic arms, it also has 19 cameras. Despite that, the rover must bring back samples from Mars so that further experiments can be conducted with it. Two installed microphones will also try to capture the soundscape of Mars.

This is the fifth rover that has set its wheels on Mars.