NASA's Rover Perseverance Has Successfully Landed on Mars!

Perseverance Sends Back Images from Mars' Surface!

A NASA rover has landed on Mars — sending back images of the planet's surface shortly after touching down on Thursday. This, in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could reveal whether life ever existed on the red watery planet 3 to 4 billion years ago.

From the NASA headquarters, the acting administrator Steve Jurczyk, could not contain his elation.

"What a credit to the team. I mean, just what an amazing team. To work through all the adversity that goes and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on Mars, plus the challenges of Covid. Just an amazing accomplishment."

Are We Ready For the Rocks?

The space agency says the six-wheeled Perseverance hurtled through the thin, orange atmosphere and settled onto the surface in the mission's riskiest manoeuvre yet — as Mars has long been a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft.

The rover will collect geological samples that will be brought back to Earth in about a decade to be analyzed for signs of ancient microscopic life — an aspirational goal that has been with the science community for decades