NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Perseverance rover has finally landed on Mars on Thursday, February 18, 3:55 p.m. EST or at almost 5:00 a.m. in the Philippines. According to the mission's team it had a flawless touchdown.

A still from NASA's animation of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars / Source: NASA

After its 292.5million-mile journey from Earth, which began on July 30, 2020, NASA's Perseverance rover, nicknamed Percy, safely landed itself on Mars at the Jezero Crater.

Soon after its landing, the official Twitter account of Percy confirmed that the rover is alive on the surface of Mars.

And after minutes, Percy transmitted its first image of the Red Planet's surface.

The first image transmitted by the Perseverance rover from Mars, captured by its hazard camera / Source: NASA

In the first photo, the shadow of the rover can be seen on the surface of Mars. Also seen in the picture are a number of rocks nearby.

The second photo transmitted by Percy shows a clearer and closer view of the rocks on the soil of Mars.

Second photo transmitted by the Perseverance rover / Source: NASA

During NASA's live broadcast of the Mars landing, host Raquel Villanueva of the Digital News and Media Office said Percy's Mars landing is the most difficult landing ever attempted on the Red Planet.

Entry, Descent, and Landing Lead Al Chen explained why this is so.

He said, "We're trying to land the biggest, heaviest, and most complex rover we've ever built at the most dangerous landing site we've ever attempted."

The Jezero Crater is actually not the ideal landing site for the rover since it has rocks, craters, and cliffs that are hazardous for Percy.

However, this site is interesting to scientists, because it is the perfect site to study the Red Planet's surface and collect samples.

So, to ensure that Percy lands safely on Mars, they equipped it with the technology that enables it to veer away from hazards.

It's like a second brain that is used to determine where it's safe to land or move to.

An illustration/animation of the Perseverance rover on Mars / Source: NASA

The ultimate goal of NASA's Mars 2020 Mission is to probe for evidence of ancient life and collect samples that can be used for further study here on Earth.

Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen said, "We're looking for [signs of] ancient life... and that's what we're so excited about."

Although Percy will collect samples now, they won't arrive here on Earth until around 2026 or 2028.

It is around that time that NASA will be able to send a sample return lander that they're working on with the European Space Agency.

If successful, the said rover will pick up the Martian rock samples collected by Percy and bring them back to Earth.

Nevertheless, Percy's picture-perfect landing is in itself already a great success and is expected to yield important findings that'll help us better understand how our mysteriously beautiful and complex universe came to be.

See the NASA animation of what Percy's entry, descent, and landing journey on Mars looked like below.

Aside from Percy, there have been four other rovers managed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory that have previously landed on Mars, namely: Soujourner (1997), Spirit (January 4, 2004), Opportunity (January 25, 2004), and Curiosity (August 6, 2012).

According to NASA Planetary Science Division Director Lori Glaze, NASA has already brought back some samples from Mars that came here to Earth as meteorites.

However, they weren't able to pinpoint the exact location on Mars where the samples were collected. Plus, the Martian samples weren't kept pristine during their long journey to Earth.

Therefore, the apparent next mission is to successfully gather samples and take note of their exact location on mars, bring them to Earth and keep them well-preserved.

And this long space mission begins with the victorious Mars landing of the Perseverance rover.

Chief Engineer and landing veteran Rob Manning celebrated this milestone of the Mars mission by saying, "NASA works. When we put our arms together and our hands together and our brains together, we can succeed. This is what NASA does."

U.S. President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris have also sent their congratulatory message to NASA via Twitter.

Other Mars missions that are currently underway are China's Tianwen-1 and the UAE's Hope probe.

China's Tianwen-1 is expected to land on the Red Planet sometime in May or June.

Meanwhile, UAE's Hope has already reached the Mars orbit on February 9. However, unlike other Mars missions, it will not touchdown on the Red Planet. Instead, it will orbit Mars for 687 days or a whole Martian year to study the weather dynamics on its atmosphere.

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