NASA’s Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars. Watch our latest video for all the details.
NASA's Spacecraft containing the Perseverance rover had lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on July 30 2020. After a six-month journey, the spacecraft reached Mars' orbit.The entire project cost $ 2.7 billion. The spacecraft began to descend into Mars's atmosphere with a parachute. Once it was close to the surface Mars, the rover was lowered to the ground using cables. The rover successfully landed on Mars on 19th Feb 2021 at 2.25 am India time. Indian-American Dr Swati Mohan was part of the team of scientists that worked on this project. Landing the Perseverance Rover on Mars was extremely difficult and challenging. Because the place where the rover was supposed to land was a crater that is a 47-km wide crater with steep cliffs and uneven land. But still NASA achieved their goal. The spacecraft was travelling at a speed of 20,000 km/h. It was being controlled by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, USA.
The distance between Mars and Earth is 206.02 million km. Any information captured by the rover takes 11 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth. When the rover landed on mars, people at NASA were still unaware about it and were anxiously waiting for news. They were not sure if the rover landed in one piece or now. But when they received news about the landing all NASA staff became happy and started clapping.
NASA's YouTube channel streamed the landing live. You can watch it using this link: https://youtu.be/gm0b_ijaYMQ.
The Perseverance rover will remain on Mars for one Martian year which equals 687 days on Earth. It will try to find any signs of life on Mars. US President Joe Biden congratulated the team that worked on the rover and said that this is Proof that with the power of science and American ingenuity nothing is impossible. Till now NASA has sent 4 rovers to Mars. Perseverance is the 5th.
