NASA scientists discuss the successful landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars – live | Science

And we have left. Veronica McGregor, a NASA media officer, introduces today’s event.

When we start, you can check the progress in the video player at the top of the blog, now activated for live coverage.

The press conference and Q&A are expected to begin in about 15 minutes. We have a live video stream here in the live blog.

If you’ve just caught up with coverage of yesterday’s memorable landing, read Thursday’s coverage from our science correspondent Natalie Grover:

Nasa’s scientific rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, flew through the atmosphere of Mars on Thursday and landed safely at the bottom of a massive crater, the first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life. the Red Planet.

Mission managers from Nasa’s jet propulsion lab near Los Angeles erupted in applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its dangerous descent and arrived at its target area in Jezero Crater, the site of a long-lost Mars lake bed.

The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, traveling 472m km before penetrating the Martian atmosphere at 19,000 km / h to begin landing on Earth’s surface.

The spacecraft’s self-guided descent and landing in a complex series of maneuvers that NASA called “the seven minutes of terror” is the most elaborate and challenging feat in the annals of robotic spaceflight.

Read the full article here:

Our photo editors have put together a gallery of Perseverance’s best landing moments:

Members of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) team who put a rover on Mars on Thursday are preparing to host a press conference and answer questions about the mission.

The rover, called Perseverance or Percy for short, is on Mars to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples that could be returned by a future mission. About the size of a car, the wheeled rover is equipped with cameras, microphones, drills and even a small helicopter.

Guardian science correspondent Natalie Grover reports on Percy’s mission:

Previous Mars missions, including Curiosity and Opportunity, have suggested that Mars was once a wet planet with an environment that likely supported life billions of years ago. Astrobiologists hope this latest mission can provide some evidence to prove whether that was the case.

NASA scientists seem to feel they could be tantalizingly close to a discovery that could change the way we see the universe and our home in it. Here was the scene in the control room near Los Angeles, just before 1:00 p.m. local time on Thursday, when Percy’s safe landing on Mars was confirmed:

The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, traveling 472m km before penetrating the Martian atmosphere at 19,000 km / h to begin landing on Earth’s surface.

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