NASA's Perseverance rover lands safely on Mars, to search for signs of ancient microbial life

American independent space agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Thursday (local time) announced that the Perseverance rover has landed on Mars.

"Perseverance rover has safely landed on Mars," NASA said in a tweet.

"I am safe on Mars. Perseverance will get you anywhere," said a tweet by NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover.

Following the safe land of Perseverance rover, Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk congratulated the team and said, "What an amazing team to work through all the adversity and challenges that go with landing a rover on Mars, plus the challenges of COVID".

Perseverance, which launched on July 30, 2020, will search for signs of ancient microbial life, collect carefully selected rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) samples for a future return to Earth. It will characterise Mars' geology and climate, and pave the way for human exploration beyond the Moon. This is NASA's fifth Mars rover and, if successful, will be the agency's ninth Mars landing.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is also carrying along a technology experiment - the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter - which will attempt the first powered and controlled flight on another planet.

(ANI)

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