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Check out these new photos from Mars Rover ‘Perseverance’

This shot from a camera on NASA's Perseverance rover's “jetpack” captures the robot in midair, just before its wheels touched down on Feb. 18, 2021. (Image: NASA JPL) (NASA 2021)

NASA’s new Mars Rover “Perseverance” is sending back some amazing photos, just a day after landing on the red planet!

The first captures the moment before landing -- we’re expecting to see some video of this next week.

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Read: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars: How it went, and what’s next

A couple of others show the rocky surface surrounding the Rover:

Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars, every one of them from the U.S.

The car-size, plutonium-powered vehicle arrived at Jezero Crater, hitting NASA’s smallest and trickiest target yet: a 5-by-4-mile strip on an ancient river delta full of pits, cliffs and rocks. Scientists believe that if life ever flourished on Mars, it would have happened 3 billion to 4 billion years ago, when water still flowed on the planet.

Over the next two years, Percy, as it is nicknamed, will use its 7-foot (2-meter) arm to drill down and collect rock samples containing possible signs of bygone microscopic life. Three to four dozen chalk-size samples will be sealed in tubes and set aside to be retrieved eventually by another rover and brought homeward by another rocket ship.

The goal is to get them back to Earth as early as 2031.


About the Author
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Ken Haddad has been with Local 4/ClickOnDetroit since 2013. He helps lead news coverage and content across broadcast and digital platforms. He's from the Metro Detroit area, and loves covering important news (and sports) in his hometown.