Touchdown: NASA’s Perseverance rover ready to search for life on Mars

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After seven months in space, NASA’s Perseverance rover overcame a tense landing phase onto Martian soil Thursday and embark on its mission to search for signs of past life. | AFP

More images, video of the descent and perhaps the first sounds of Mars ever recorded by microphones are expected in the coming hours as the rover relays data to overhead satellites.“Today proved once again that with the power of science and American ingenuity, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility,” he tweeted.

The spacecraft carrying Perseverance careened into the Martian atmosphere at 12,500 miles per hour, protected by its heat shield, then deployed a supersonic parachute the size of a Little League field, before firing up an eight-engined jetpack.

Mars was warmer and wetter in its distant past, and while previous exploration has determined the planet was habitable, Perseverance is tasked with determining whether it was actually inhabited. For example, fossils that arose from ancient microbes may look suspiciously similar to patterns caused by precipitation.Before getting to the main mission, NASA wants to run several eye-catching experiments.

Another experiment involves an instrument that can convert oxygen from Mars’s primarily carbon dioxide atmosphere, much like a plant.

 

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