NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars: Will search for signs of life, to collect rock samples

 NASA's Perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars, and it is the most advanced rover that the US space agency has sent to the red planet till date. Here are top points to keep in mind about NASA's historic landing.

In this illustration, NASA’s Perseverance rover gets its first look at the Martian surface below, after dropping its heat shield just under six minutes after entry into the Mars atmosphere. Hundreds of critical events executed perfectly and exactly on time for the rover to land safely on February 18, 2021. (Image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars, and it is the most advanced rover that the US space agency has sent to the red planet till date. NASA confirmed the the successful touchdown in mission control at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California at 12:55 pm PST, which was around 2.25 am for India.

Even, Google Search is celebrating NASA’s successful landing with celebratory fireworks, when you search for NASA Perseverance or NASA Mars rover 2021. Here are top points to keep in mind about NASA’s historic landing.

Perseverance will collect Mars samples

The Perseverance rover is different from any other Mars mission because this one will try and collect Mars sample, which would later be brought back to Earth. Getting these samples back to Earth won’t happen before 2031, and NASA is collaborating with its various centres and the European Space Agency (ESA) in order for this mission to succeed. But Perseverance is the first step in that journey.