Seven months of space travel, decades of work, billions of dollars to answer just one question: Does life exist anywhere else in the universe. A NASA space vehicle entered the Martian atmosphere, yesterday at 9:30 p.m Paris GMT.
The "Mars 2020" probe, has set up by a NASA department, aimed at sending the "Esperance" rover directly to the red planet in order to actively search for any trace of extraterrestrial life.
The probe arrived near the planet Mars at a speed of 13 048 miles / h (=21 000km/h). It took seven minutes to land on Martian ground. Seven minutes when anything can happen, called by NASA “the 7 minutes of terror”. Before “Perseverance”, a lot of gears crashed. First, the gear entered the Martian atmosphere equipped with a thermal shield heated at an extreme temperature. The friction slowed down its speed from 13 048 to 260 miles / h (= 21 000 to 420 km/h). The probe is less than 6,21 miles (=10 km) from the surface. Its 21 meter diameter supersonic parachute deployed successfully.
“Landing confirmed !” Exclaimed Swati Mohan, in charge of operations control. The “Perseverance robot” landed slowly on the surface of the red planet.
In the control room of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, the teams present exploded with joy at the time of confirmation.
Here are the first images taken by the “Perseverance robot”, from the Jezero crater. For it, the adventure begins for the next 10 years.
Loïs Laumonnier
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