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NASA’s Perseverance Set to Land On Mars

Mars —

This afternoon, NASA  expects its Perseverance spacecraft to land on Mars. Landing safely will be an incredible challenge. But if it goes well, the mission could tell us about possible life on Mars, and test out several new inventions.

NASA launched the Perseverance in July of last year. Now, after traveling through space for seven months, Perseverance has reached the red planet, and is ready to land. NASA expects the landing to happen around 3:55pm Eastern Time (20:55 UTC).

This illustration shows the events that occur in the final minutes of the nearly seven-month journey that NASA's Perseverance rover takes to Mars.
The landing is quite tricky. The Perseverance will have to handle the entire landing by itself because it takes too long for information to be sent back and forth to Earth. Above, a diagram showing important steps in the landing.
(Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

The landing is quite tricky. Many missions to Mars have ended in failure. And the Perseverance will have to handle everything about the landing by itself. That’s because the landing happens so quickly, and it takes too long for information to be sent back and forth to Earth.

The spacecraft will be going about 12,000 miles per hour (19,300 kilometers per hour). It has to slow down to a gentle landing speed in just seven minutes.

Because Perseverance is so heavy, a parachute alone isn’t enough to slow it down. Instead, rockets will be used to cut the spacecraft’s speed even more, until it’s just above the planet’s surface. At that point, the rover itself will be lowered to the ground using what NASA calls a “sky crane”.

An illustration of NASA's Perseverance rover landing safely on Mars. Hundreds of critical events must execute perfectly and exactly on time for the rover to land safely on Feb. 18, 2021.
The Perseverance is so heavy, that a parachute alone isn’t enough to slow it down. Rockets will cut the spacecraft’s speed even more, until it’s just above the planet’s surface. Then, the rover itself will be lowered to the ground using a “sky crane” (above).
(Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

NASA’s scientists call the period when the Perseverance is landing itself “seven minutes of terror”. That’s because they can’t do anything except wait for seven minutes to find out if the rover landed safely.

But NASA has gone through this before. In 2012, it landed a similar rover named Curiosity on Mars. Curiosity turned up information suggesting that Mars might once have supported tiny forms of life called microbes.  That’s one reason that looking for proof of ancient life on Mars is one of Perseverance’s main missions.

A color-enhanced image of the delta in Jezero Crater, which once held a lake. It will be the landing site of NASA's Mars 2020 rover.
Perseverance will be landing in Jezero Crater (above). It’s a dangerous place to land, but NASA believes that long ago, a river used to open out into a large lake there. NASA is hoping that signs of life will be trapped in the layers of dirt and rock in this area.
(Source: NASA/JPL/JHU-APL/MSSS/Brown University [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

Perseverance will be landing in Jezero Crater. It’s a dangerous place to land; it’s full of huge rocks and cliffs. But NASA believes that about three and a half billion years ago, a river used to open out into a large lake there. NASA is hoping that signs of life – if there was life – will be trapped in the layers of dirt and rock in this area.

That’s why another important task for the Perseverance is collecting rock samples. It has a special drill that will allow it to collect up to 40 samples drilled from the rock in Mars’s surface.

Diagram of the perseverance rover-instruments
Another important task for the Perseverance is collecting rock samples. It has a special drill that will allow it to collect up to 40 samples drilled from the rock in Mars’s surface. Above, diagram showing many of Perseverance’s special tools.
(Source: NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

The Perseverance will store these samples in special tubes. NASA has plans for later Mars missions to collect these samples and send them back to Earth.

Perseverance is also trying out something else completely new on Mars: it’s carrying a small helicopter drone called Ingenuity. Ingenuity has been specially designed to work on Mars.

When NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter attempts its first test flight on the Red Planet, the agency's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will be close by, as seen in this artist's concept.
Perseverance is also trying out a small helicopter drone called Ingenuity, which was specially designed to work on Mars. Above, an artist’s idea of the Perseverance and Ingenuity at work on Mars.
(Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

If it’s successful, Ingenuity will be the first known flying device of its kind on Mars or any other non-Earth planet. It could completely change the way Mars is explored in the future.


Did You Know…?
If you’d like to watch the landing of the Perseverance, NASA will begin covering the event at 2:15pm ET (19:15 UTC).

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