EARTH TO MARS

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Shares Incredible Pics of First Moments on Mars

The $2.7 billion craft will spend a decade investigating Mars and preparing it for future human exploration.

NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars this week and is already sending back incredible photos of the Red Planet. Aided by scientists back on Earth, the rover is tasked with searching for traces of life on Mars. On Friday, NASA uploaded a selfie that Perseverance took seconds before as it landed on Mars. “The moment that my team dreamed of for years, now a reality. Dare mighty things,” Perseverance wrote in a tweet. Another photo by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter caught Perseverance hanging by a parachute during its descent. “An open horizon, with so much to explore,” Perseverance wrote as she tweeted out a brand new photo of the surface of Mars. “I can’t wait to get going.” The rover has 23 cameras on board. Ultimately, Perseverance will prepare Mars for future travel by human explorers.