- NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance landed safely inside a vast crater on the Red Planet on Friday in its search for traces of ancient microbial life
- “Touchdown confirmed!” rang out the voice of Swati Mohan, an Indian-American scientist, inside the space agency’s control room back in the US. She leads the guidance, navigation and controls operations of the spacecraft
- Mohan moved to the US when she was a year old; was raised in N Virginia-Washington DC
- Over the next two years, the rover will use its 7-foot arm to drill down and collect rock samples with possible signs of bygone microscopic life
Highlights
- 7 months: the robotic vehicle sailed through space before landing on Mars
- 472 million km distance covered
- 19,000 km/hour speed at which it entered Mars atmosphere
- 7 minutes of terror during descent : There were “7 minutes of terror” during entry, descent and landing of the rover, the most challenging feat in the annals of robotic spaceflight
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