CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars.<\/p>\n
Ground controllers at the space agency\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, cheered and exchanged fist bumps and high-fives in triumph — and relief \u2014 on receiving confirmation that the six-wheeled Perseverance had touched down on the red planet, long a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft.<\/p>\n
It took a tension-filled 11 1\/2 minutes for the signal to reach Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cTouchdown confirmed! Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking signs of past life,\u201d flight controller Swati Mohan announced to back-slapping colleagues wearing masks against the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
The landing marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week. All three missions lifted off in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, journeying some 300 million miles in nearly seven months.<\/p>\n
Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, every one of them from the U.S., beginning in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
The car-size, plutonium-powered vehicle arrived at Jezero Crater, hitting NASA\u2019s smallest and trickiest target yet: a 5\u2013by-4-mile strip on an ancient river delta full of pits, cliffs and fields of rock. Scientists believe that if life ever flourished on Mars, it would have happened 3 billion to 4 billion years ago, when water still flowed on the planet.<\/p>\n
Over the next two years, Percy, as it is nicknamed, will use its 7-foot arm to drill down and collect rock samples with possible signs of bygone microscopic life. Three to four dozen chalk-size samples will be sealed in tubes and set aside on Mars to be retrieved by a fetch rover and brought homeward by another rocket ship. The goal is to get them back to Earth as early as 2031.<\/p>\n
Scientists hope to answer one of the central questions of theology, philosophy and space exploration.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we alone in this sort of vast cosmic desert, just flying through space, or is life much more common? Does it just emerge whenever and wherever the conditions are ripe?\u201d said deputy project scientist Ken Williford. \u201cWe\u2019re really on the verge of being able to potentially answer these enormous questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
China\u2019s spacecraft includes a smaller rover that also will be seeking evidence of life — if it makes it safely down from orbit in May or June.<\/p>\n
Perseverance was on its own during the NASA-described \u201cseven minutes of terror\u201d descent.<\/p>\n
Flight controllers waited helplessly as the preprogrammed spacecraft hit the thin, 95% carbon dioxide Martian atmosphere at 12,100 mph, or 16 times the speed of sound, slowing as it plummeted.<\/p>\n
It released its 70-foot parachute, jettisoned its heat shield, and then used a rocket-steered platform known as a sky crane to lower the rover the final 60 or so feet to the surface.<\/p>\n
Perseverance promptly sent back a grainy, black-and-white photo of Mars\u2019 pockmarked surface, the rover\u2019s shadow visible in the frame. The rover appeared to have touched down about 35 yards from the nearest rocks.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake that, Jezero!\u201d a controller called out.<\/p>\n
Mars has proved a treacherous place: In the span of less than three months in 1999, a U.S. spacecraft was destroyed upon entering orbit because engineers had mixed up metric and English units, and an American lander crashed on Mars after its engines cut out prematurely.<\/p>\n
Perseverance will conduct an experiment in which it will convert small amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into oxygen, a process that could be a boon to future astronauts by providing breathable air and an ingredient for rocket fuel.<\/p>\n
The rover is also equipped with a record 25 cameras and two microphones, many of them turned on during descent. Among the never-before-seen views NASA intends to send back in the next couple days: the enormous supersonic parachute billowing open and the ground getting closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cA feast for the eyes and ears. It\u2019s really going to be spectacular,\u201d observed Arizona State University\u2019s Jim Bell, lead scientist for a pair of mast cameras that will serve as the rover\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
NASA is teaming up with the European Space Agency to bring the rocks home. Perseverance\u2019s mission alone costs nearly $3 billion.<\/p>\n
The only way to confirm — or rule out \u2014 signs of past life is to analyze the samples in the world\u2019s best labs. Instruments small enough to be sent to Mars wouldn\u2019t have the necessary precision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really the most extraordinary, mind-boggingly complicated and will-be history-making exploration campaign,\u201d David Parker, the European Space Agency\u2019s director of human and robotic exploration, said on the eve of landing.<\/p>\n