NASA's ambitious Mars mission 2020.

 The Perseverance rover, NASA's biggest and most advanced robotic geologist, made a historic successful landing on the surface of the Red Planet. It is the most ambitious Mars mission for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It had been a seven-month long journey before the confirmation of the safe landing was announced on Thursday, February 18, 2021. The Perseverance rover, nicknamed as Percy, has been designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission was launched in July 2020. It's a great news for the world of science and technology. 

The rover is about the size of car. It weighs 1026 kilogram. It's actually a car-sized robotic explorer (a visitor) to the Mars. It has covered a distance of 293 million miles i.e. 472 million kilometres to reach the Mars. The Percy has landed in an area of the red planet, that is known as Jezero Crater in which it has been found in research that a river flowed millions of years ago. That's why there's greater possibility that traces of life can be found there. One of the main objectives of the mission is to search for signs of ancient microbial life on the planet. For this, the robotic rover has 7-feet long arm to move around and collect rock samples from and around the area of Jezero Crater. A new fetch rover will be sent to Mars again to bring back the samples collected by the Percy, as it is not gonna return from the red planet to the earth. Even, the Percy has tweeted after successful landing, 'Hello, world. My first look at my forever home.' (tweeted on behalf of the Mercy by NASA).

The rover is equipped with ground-breaking technology. It has record 25 cameras and two microphones. It has even sent to the earth a few exclusive photos of the surface of the Mars till now. The mission has cost $3 billion. 

Landing on the Mars has always been a herculean task. This rover has been built not just to land on the Mars but to find and collect the best scientific samples that could be brought here on the earth for further research and analysis. Landing is just a beginning, though. The rover will start its 2-years explorations on the surface of the planet. This will pave the way for human exploration of the red planet. If everything goes well, it can prove to be a crucial stepping stone towards NASA's goal of sending humans to explore the Red Planet.