Updated February 19th, 2021 at 00:37 IST

Mars landing of Perseverance rover: What time is Perseverance landing on Mars

The Perseverance rover is of the Mars 2020 mission and it was launched on 30th of July 2020. It is scheduled for Mars landing today on the 18th February 2021.

Reported by: Saurabh Sabat
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The Perseverance rover contains several scientific instruments and along with it, there are 19 cameras, 2 microphones on it. The helicopter known as Ingenuity is also being carried by this rover which is an experimental aircraft and it will attempt powered flight for the first time on a different planet. Find out everything about this Mars landing of Perseverance rover.

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Mars Landing Today of Perseverance Rover

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The Perseverance rover is of the Mars 2020 mission and it was launched on 30th of July 2020 with the main goal of searching for any possible signs of ancient life along with collecting samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) and then return back to Earth. The scheduled date and place for its landing is February 18th, 2020 at the Jezero Crater, Mars respectively.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manufactured Perseverance and launched it on 30 July 2020, at 7:50 a.m. EDT (11:50 UTC). This rover has a nickname Percy, and the size of this Mars rover is car-sized. For those of you that are wondering as to what time is mars landing of this Perseverance rover - it is scheduled to land on Mars on the 18th of February (today) 2021, at 3 p.m EST or 8 p.m UTC. For those interested, they can watch Mars landing here:

The Perseverance rover is completely aimed towards a total of four science objectives which is also going to support the Mars Exploration Program's science goals:

  • Looking for habitability: 
    • The rover will have to identify all the past environments that have the capability to support microbial life.
  • Seeking biosignatures: 
    • Search and find out any and all possible past microbial life in the habitable environments and this can be more specifically be in all types of special rocks which have been known to keep life signs preserved in rocks for ages.
    • Caching samples: 
      • The rover also needs to collect core rock and "soil" samples and store them on the Martian surface.
  • Preparing for humans: 
    • Testing how good is the oxygen production in the atmosphere of Mars. This is perhaps the most important as without oxygen living on Mars can never be an option.

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Published February 19th, 2021 at 00:36 IST