Today marks a significant day in future history books. The Perseverance NASAS latest robotic explorer safely landed on “the red planet” after a 300 million-mile voyage originating in Florida.
“Seven minutes of terror” are what information tabs are naming the brief time before the safe landing on Thursday at 3:55pm EST. The fiery atmospheric conditions upon an entry made for a nerve-racking landing; until the rover’s landing mechanism kicked in blasting eight retrorockets to slow and guide the robotic device to a proper landing space before using nylon cords to lower it onto the surface of the moon.
“Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs of past life,” exclaimed NASA engineer Swati Mohan.
USA TODAY
The Perseverance landing mechanism allowing the rover to go from thousands of miles an hour to a 1.7mph landing caused an 11-minute delay in transmission from Earth to Mars, meaning the rover landed all on its own, with no possible way a human could have helped.
In California at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Mission Managers received the all-clear communication from Mars as well as the first pictures of the isolated, deserted texture of Mars and images of the terrain that appears to be uninhabitable by humans and is safe for our robotic explorer.
“This is a sign that NASA works, When we put our arms together and our hands together and our brains together, we can succeed. This is what NASA does and this is what we can do as a country.”
USA TODAY, JPL Chief Engineer, Rob Manning
Stay tuned for updates
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