The US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has successfully landed its Perseverance rover in a deep crater near Mar’s equator called Jezero according to a BBC report.
Engineers at Nasa’s mission control in California erupted with joy when confirmation of touchdown came through.
The six-wheeled vehicle will now spend at least the next two years drilling into the local rocks, looking for evidence of past life.
Jezero is thought to have held giant lake billions of years ago. And where there’s been water, there’s the possibility there might also have been life.
Landing on Mars is never easy, and even though NASA has become an expert at it, everyone on the Perseverance team had spoken with great caution going into Thursday.
This is the second one-tonne rover put on Mars by the US space agency.
The first, Curiosity, was landed in a different crater in 2012. It trialed innovative descent technologies, including a rocket-powered cradle, that Perseverance has also now put to good effect.
