Perseverance Landed On Mars Today Near 2 PM Mtn in “Seven Minutes of Terror” That Worked!

“Perseverance has safely landed on Mars!”

— NASA JPL Mission Control, February 18, 2021, near 2 PM Mtn.

First Perseverance rover image after landing in the Jezero Crater at a few minutes before 2 PM Mountain on Thursday, February 18, 2021.

NASA illustration of the skycrane that must sustain the big Perseverance Rover below it as the machines descend toward Jezero Crater on Mars while engineers back on Earth pray the landing is safe. Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech. **Click to enlarge.**

February 18, 2021 NASA Mission Control, JPL, Pasadena, California – Mars landings are never a sure thing and there’s never been a NASA try quite like this one before. Perseverance weighs 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms) and is a nuclear-powered rover built by U. S. scientists to seriously search for signs of life on Mars. Some 2,000 scientists, engineers, and others have been working for months to get to this day when the large Perseverance will try to safely land in the Jezero crater today. JPL Mission Control is doing live coverage. Everyone is worried about the “7 minutes of terror” when the precision planning works, or it doesn’t to get Perseverance safely on the red dust.

NASA Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in the hour before the United States newest and largest Martian Rover is about to land in the Jezero crater on Mars, February 18, 2021.

Landing In Ancient Lake Called “Jezero Crater”

The Jezero crater was picked in order to look for evidence of ancient or present life in soil that was once a big lake. Jezero exposes rocks that are between 3.5 to 4 billion years old.

North of the Martian equator in the Isidis Planitia region (18.4 degrees North and 77.5 degrees East) Jezero Crater is 28 miles (45 kilometers) wide, and is located on the western edge of a flat plain called Isidis Planitia, which lies just north of the Martian equator. The Jezero Crater is 28 miles in diameter (45 km). The landing site is about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from Curiosity’s landing site in Gale Crater.

Is? Was? There Life On Mars?

Based on everything we know about Mars in the past when it had lots of water, it makes sense that there could have been various life forms during that watery time on the red planet.

NASA/JPL reports: “Scientists believe the Jezero Crater area was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta. The process of landing site selection involved a combination of mission team members and scientists from around the world, who carefully examined more than 60 candidate locations on the Red Planet. After the exhaustive five-year study of potential sites, each with its own unique characteristics and appeal, Jezero rose to the top.

Jezero Crater tells a story of the on-again, off-again nature of the wet past of Mars. More than 3.5 billion years ago, river channels spilled over the crater wall and created a lake. Scientists see evidence that water carried clay minerals from the surrounding area into the crater lake. Conceivably, microbial life could have lived in Jezero during one or more of these wet times. If so, signs of their remains might be found in lakebed or shoreline sediments. Scientists will study how the region formed and evolved, seek signs of past life, and collect samples of Mars rock and soil that might preserve these signs.

History of U. S. Mars Landing Sites,
Including Perseverance

Mars Landing Sites, including the Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater target for the Perseverance rover. Iillustration by NASA/JPL-Caltech. **Click to enlarge.**

More Information:

12-19-2020 – A. I. Robot Dogs Training to Explore Caves On Mars.

Websites:

NASA Mars Mission Perseverance Rover: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/landing-site/