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Well, that’s cool.
NASA named the landing site of the agency’s Perseverance rover “Octavia E. Butler Landing,” after science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. The landing spot is marked with a star in this image from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Experiment) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The MRO mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, for the NASA Science Missions Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona at Tucson has supplied and operates HiRISE.
A key focus of Perseverance’s mission to Mars is astrobiology, including looking for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and hide Martian rock and regolith (broken rocks and dust).
Via the NASA press release.
Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
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