The NASA Perseverance Mars rover is expected to land on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 3:55pm EST.
After a 292.5 million mile journey that began on July 30, the Mars rover will finally touch down on the red planet this afternoon on the U.S. eastern time zone.
Perseverance Mission
According to CNN, NASA's Perseverance rover has an important mission to determine whether there was ever life in Mars. The spacecraft will take photos and try to find evidence of ancient life as well as study the climate and geology. The rover will also investigate Jezero Crater, which was a lake 3.9 billion years ago. It will search for ancient fossils and bring back samples from the rocks and soil.
"Perseverance's sophisticated science instruments will not only help in the hunt for fossilized microbial life, but also expand our knowledge of Martian geology and its past, present, and future," Ken Farley, project scientist for Mars 2020, stated in a report from CNN.
The rover is expected to descent by the lake bed and river delta, making it a more challenging landing. Perseverance will enter the atmosphere of Mars at around 3:48pm EST and make its landing 7 minutes later, or at least at this point, Earth can be notified of its landing. It takes about 11 minutes for radio signals in Mars to arrive to Earth.
Rover Timing
Reports indicate that all the timing is subject to change depending on the atmosphere once the rover enters the space.
NASA is providing live landing coverage beginning at 2:15pm EST. A Spanish-language landing commentary will begin at 2:30pm EST. Click here for landing coverage.
