Space has always been a fascinating mystery for all of us and we would be lying if we said we are not curious about what lies in the universe outside this earth and NASA along with other renowned space organizations has made it their mission to find it out for us and we have just yet achieved a grand milestone in that mission. NASA’s Perseverance Rover has successfully landed on Mars and has shared the first images of the red planet.
More Info: NASA
Touchdown confirmed. The #CountdownToMars is complete, but the mission is just beginning. pic.twitter.com/UvOyXQhhN9
— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021
The Perseverance Rover is so capable that it tweeted some photos of the Red planet shortly after landing on Mars. Yes! You read that right, my friend!
The tweet read: “Hello, world. My first look at my forever home.”
Hello, world. My first look at my forever home. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/dkM9jE9I6X
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021
The visual at Mission control after the rover’s safe landing was beautiful! The space agency’s six-wheeled robot initiated this journey seven months ago and has traveled a 470-million-km journey from Earth.
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Many attempts have been made before to land on Mars, but half of the spacecraft sent to land on Mars failed to accomplish the task. The landing is undoubtedly the most difficult and challenging part.
The final minutes of the trip are referred to as ‘seven minutes of terror’ – because of the complication involved. The radio signals take too long to reach Earth, by the time we receive the signals on earth, the landing has already happened.
In a video of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, EDL Engineer Adam Steltzner in 2012 explained that how these delayed signals cause a terrifying finale.
He said: “From the top of the atmosphere down to the surface it takes us seven minutes. It takes 14 minutes or so for the signal from the spacecraft to make it to Earth – that’s how far Mars is away from us – so when we first get word that we’ve touched the top of the atmosphere, the vehicle has been alive or dead on the surface for at least seven minutes.”
But now that the Perseverance Rover has passed the seven minutes of terror phase, it will begin its task of looking for ancient signs of life- once it’s done tweeting.
NASA said: “Perseverance is tasked with searching for tell-tale signs that microbial life may have lived on Mars billions of years ago.
“It will collect rock core samples in metal tubes, and future missions would return these samples to Earth for deeper study.”
The Perseverance Rover is also accompanied by a helicopter named Ingenuity, which will take the first-ever flight on another planet.
SHOW US THE ALIENS!!
— Javier⛄️🌨 🎄🎇 (@Javierr_06) February 18, 2021
Ken Williford, Deputy Project Scientist for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: “We expect the best places to look for biosignatures would be in Jezero’s lakebed or in shoreline sediments that could be encrusted with carbonate minerals, which are especially good at preserving certain kinds of fossilized life on Earth.
“But as we search for evidence of ancient microbes on an ancient alien world, it’s important to keep an open mind.”
Waiting for the day when Humans touchdown the Red Planet! For now All the Best to the Perseverance Rover.
The Countdown to Mars is complete, but the mission is just beginning.