[imagesource: NASA]

Like millions of others out there, I stayed up last night to watch the Perseverance Mars landing, and it was spectacular.

Getting to Mars is no easy feat, and roughly a third of the missions launched have failed, so the tension was off the charts.

There were several reasons why the rover’s landing wasn’t going to be easy. For one thing, the atmosphere on Mars is about 1% as thick as Earth’s, which provides enough friction to burn up a spacecraft.

Secondly, in the past, NASA has avoided landing in Jezero, a former lake from 3,5 billion years ago, because of its unpredictable terrain.

Jezero contains sandpits that Perseverance (or ‘Percy’ as she’s affectionately known) could get stuck in and rocks that would damage her – NASA refers to Percy as ‘she’ or ‘her’.

At the same time, it’s one of the areas that scientists are most interested in because of its potential to house microbes that could tell us more about past life on Mars.

Here’s where things started getting tense, as Perseverance entered Mars’ atmosphere before mission control lost contact for those final tense moments.

Wait it out – it’s worth it to see confirmation that’s she’s safe and on the surface at the 2:18 mark:

Over to CNN for a word from the team that got her there:

“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally — when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk.

Image: NASA

“The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet in the 2030s.”

Shortly after she touched down, she sent through the first two images of her landing site. One from the front, and one from behind.

And another look behind me. Welcome to Jezero Crater. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/dbU3dhm6VZ

— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021

These images aren’t as clear as the images captured by Curiosity for two reasons. Firstly, the dust is still settling after her landing, and secondly, they are serving the simple function of letting those of us at home know that she is ready to roll – after a nap.

Following a busy day and a long journey (469,9 million kilometres), she powered down for a bit to recharge.

The camera that Perseverance has taken with her is the most advanced one to date and promises some of the most incredible images of Mars ever sent back to Earth, so we can look forward to those in the future.

She’s also housing an experiment to fly a helicopter, called Ingenuity, on another planet for the first time.

Good luck out there, Percy – make us proud.

[source:cnn]