Thursday 18, 2021 was the date that the perseverance rover from NASA overcame the “7 minutes of terror” to land on the Mars surface. This made it the fifth rover to ever reach make it to the red planet.
Perseverance: “continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : steadfastness.”
Like its name, perseverance was built through determination and hard work. The team had been working on the project for over 10 years, and it all boiled down to the “seven minutes of terror” when the crew frantically scrambled to get everything right so as to not reach a sudden and disappointing end to their voyage.
There are many reasons to justify missions to Mars, among those being the hyped possibility of life, relative ease to travel between planets (there are alignment opportunities around every two years), and scientific curiosity of the possibilities of the planet so close to ours.
The nail-biting sequence if pretty stressful to watch, even for those not following the story. Some of the thrill and nervousness of the crew and team was shared by the millions of viewers throughout the world eagerly watched the landing, having marked their calendars for weeks.
The rover has sent out pictures of the Martian surface back to Earth, the group quickly posting them online and operating its own twitter account! The first pictures were black and white, but the newer ones sent Friday were in full color, showing off the famous red surface of the planet.
The rover will operate in icy temperatures. Mars has an average surface temperature of negative eighty degrees Fahrenheit, or negative sixty degrees Celsius!
Congratulations to the NASA team and the scientific community, both national and international for this monumental and historic achievement. Perseverance has joined the ranks of Sojourner, Opportunity, Spirit, and Curiosity, the previous four rovers to ever successfully make the journey. The team has proved to us the cliché “anything is possible with perseverance and determination”
