NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars to hunt for ancient life
The most advanced rover ever sent to Mars touched down in an ancient crater to search for signs of past microbial life.
NASA's Perseverance rover, the most advanced vehicle ever sent to Mars, landed safely on the Red Planet this year, touching down in an ancient crater to begin an ambitious mission to search for signs of past microbial life and to gather samples for eventual return to Earth.
The landing was a nail-biting affair, as the rover descended through the thin Martian atmosphere and was lowered to the surface by a rocket-powered sky crane in a sequence of automated manoeuvres that mission controllers could only watch and await. Confirmation of a safe landing brought jubilation.
The rover set down in a crater that scientists believe once held a lake and a river delta billions of years ago, an environment that could have been hospitable to microbial life. If life ever existed on Mars, such a site offered a promising place to look for its traces.
Perseverance carried a sophisticated suite of instruments to study the geology and chemistry of the site, to seek chemical and mineral signs of ancient life, and to collect and store rock samples in sealed tubes. A future mission is intended to retrieve those samples and bring them to Earth for detailed analysis.
The rover also carried a small experimental helicopter, intended to demonstrate powered flight in the thin Martian atmosphere for the first time, and a device to test the production of oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, a technology that could support future human missions.
The mission represented the most determined effort yet to answer one of the most profound questions in science: whether life has ever existed beyond Earth. Perseverance's arrival marked a new chapter in the exploration of Mars, advancing the long campaign to understand the Red Planet's history and to determine whether, in its distant past, it was ever home to life.