Perseverance is in ‘great shape’, says NASA after $2.2billion rover LANDS on Mars following a 239 million-mile journey through space, the agency confirmed at 3:55 p.m. ET Thursday.
Shortly after landing the rover sent back its first images of the Martian surface to NASA headquarters.
It entered Martian atmosphere at around 12,000mph and deployed a parachute to slow down before landing. The rover landed itself flawlessly, according to the mission’s team.
Perseverance will search for extraterrestrial life in crater that was a lake 3.5bn years ago. It will collect samples and cache them across Mars for a separate mission in 2023 to retrieve .
Perseverance also carries instruments that could help further exploration on Mars in the future.
Not only could this help NASA scientists learn how to produce rocket fuel on Mars, but also oxygen that could be used during future human exploration of the red planet.
