NASA scientists to discuss successful landing of Perseverance rover on Mars – Live | Science

Here we go. NASA Media Officer Veronica McGregor presents today’s event.

When we get started, you can watch the proceedings in the video player at the top of the blog, now enabled for live coverage.

The press conference and questions and answers are expected to begin in approximately 15 minutes. We will have a live video feed here in the live blog.

If you’re just catching up on coverage of yesterday’s memorable landing, read the coverage from our science correspondent Natalie Grover on Thursday:

NASA’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology lab ever sent to another world, crossed the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a large crater, its first stop at the search for traces of ancient microbial life on the red planet.

Mission directors at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab near Los Angeles cheered and cheered as radio signals confirmed the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived in its target area in the inside the Jezero crater, site of a long-lost Martian lake.

The robotic vehicle has been in space for nearly seven months, traveling 293m miles (472m km) before breaking through the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 mph (19,000 km / h) to begin its approach to landing on the surface of the planet.

The spacecraft’s self-guided descent and landing in a complex series of maneuvers that NASA has dubbed “the Seven Minutes of Terror” is the most elaborate and difficult feat in the annals of robotic spaceflight.

Read the full track here:

Our image editors have put together a gallery of the best moments from the Perseverance landing:

Members of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) team that landed a rover on Mars on Thursday are preparing to hold a press conference and answer questions about the mission.

The rover, called Perseverance or Percy for short, is on Mars looking for signs of ancient life and collecting samples for a future mission. The size of a car, the wheeled rover is equipped with cameras, microphones, drills, and even a small helicopter.

Guardian science correspondent Natalie Grover reports Percy’s mission:

Previous missions to Mars, including Curiosity and Opportunity, have suggested that Mars was once a humid planet with an environment that may have supported life billions of years ago. Astrobiologists hope this latest mission can offer evidence to prove if this was the case.

NASA scientists seem to think they may be very close to a discovery that could change the way we see the universe and our home. Here is the scene in the control room near Los Angeles, just before 1 p.m. local time on Thursday when Percy’s safe landing on Mars was confirmed:

The robotic vehicle has been in space for almost seven months, traveling 293m miles (472m km) before breaking through the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 mph (19,000 km / h) to begin its approach to landing on the surface of the planet.

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