On Feb. 18, NASA\u2019s Mars Perseverance Rover, the largest rover ever sent to Mars, will land on the red planet to begin a new science mission that seeks to not only deepen human understanding of Martian geology and answer questions about whether or not life ever existed on Mars, but also act as a trailblazer for future missions to Mars. But before the science mission can begin, Perseverance has to get through the most difficult landing maneuver that the space agency has ever attempted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The landing sequence will begin with a fiery entry into the planet\u2019s atmosphere, then a parachute descent down towards its landing spot in the Jezero Crater. At about 2-3 miles above the Martian surface, the \u201csky crane\u201d carrying the rover will separate from the parachute and make a powered descent to the surface. Once the rover touches down, the sky crane will separate and fly off. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m exaggerating when I say that entry, descent and landing (EDL) is the most critical and most dangerous part of the mission,\u201d Allen Chen, the EDL lead, said on Jan. 27 during a NASA JPL press conference. \u201cSuccess is never assured, and that\u2019s especially true when we\u2019re trying to land the biggest, heaviest and most complicated rover we\u2019ve ever built to the most dangerous site we\u2019ve ever attempted to land on.\u201d A spectacular animation video of the landing sequence can be seen in this video. <\/p>\n\n\n\n