Far out cosmology: we've landed on Mars (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, February 19, 2021, 19:47 (1371 days ago) @ David Turell

Successful landing:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00432-1?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_c...

"NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down safely in Jezero Crater on Mars on 18 February, kicking off a new era of exploration on the red planet in which rocks will be collected and returned to Earth for the first time.

"Encased in a protective heat shield, Perseverance whizzed through the thin Martian atmosphere and then deployed a parachute to slow itself down. In a final landing manoeuvre, a ‘sky crane’ holding the rover fired its rockets to gently lower the six-wheeled, car-sized Perseverance to the surface.

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"The landing went as smoothly as engineers had hoped. "I almost feel like we're in a dream," says Jennifer Trosper, the mission's deputy project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. In the coming hours and days, the rover will photograph more of its surroundings and begin testing the scientific instruments it carries.

"The mission’s goal is to roll around Jezero Crater and collect rock samples from the river delta and an ancient lake that might hold evidence of past Martian life. Ultimately, the rover will leave those samples at certain spots on the Martian ground where future spacecraft can retrieve them — making Perseverance the first step in a multi-decadal effort to bring Mars rocks to Earth."

Comment: Just bringing the news to this site.