NASA has sent a rover to Mars. Here’s all you need to know about it.
It’s named Perseverance – a word that means – “continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition”. And it’s been named aptly – because the rover needed to persevere in order to reach Mars!
After landing there on Thursday night, it sent back some stunning images of the Red Planet (as Mars is sometimes called).
About the spacecraft
It has 25 cameras and two microphones. Many of these cameras were turned on as the rover descended onto the planet – some images show stunning details of the landing.
The perseverance rover is the most advanced one ever sent to another world. The rover will look for traces of ancient life on Mars and will also try and bring some rock samples back to Earth.
This is what NASA put up on its Twitter page:
The Voice that announced the touchdown – Dr. Swati Mohan
As the rover landed, a voice said, “touchdown confirmed” – this was the voice of Dr. Swati Mohan, an Indian American who is among the team of scientists behind the Perseverance mission.
Dr. Swati’s parents migrated to the US when she was a year old. She says her love for space began with the American science fiction series ‘Star Trek’, which she watched when she was nine years old. Till she was 16, she wanted to become a pediatrician, but later she decided to become an engineer and go into space exploration.
We’re proud of her 🙂
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