Almost 50 years after the first casualty at Mars, NASA is attempting its hardest Martian touchdown yet. The rover named Perseverance is headed Thursday for a compact 5-mile-by-4-mile (8-kilometer-by-6.4-kilometer) patch on the edge of an ancient river delta. TOUGHEST LANDING YETNASA has equipped the 1-ton Perseverance — a beefier version of Curiosity — with the latest landing tech to ace this touchdown. That’s why NASA wants Perseverance snooping around Jezero Crater, once home to a lake fed by a river. ROUND-TRIP TICKETScientists have wanted to get hold of Mars rocks ever since NASA’s Mariners provided the first close pictures a half-century ago.

Source: ABC News February 17, 2021 16:41 UTC