Astro Blog

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/touchdown-confirmed-perseverance-landing-marks-new-dawn-mars-science Source:    By   Paul Voosen , Science Magazine.  Excerpt: It’s a new day on Mars. NASA’s $2.7 billion Perseverance rover has successfully landed in Jezero crater, alighting just 35 meters away from hazardous boulders it had identified during descent. At about 3:55 p.m. EST, confirmation came back of the rover safely touching its wheels down, resulting in exuberant but socially distanced applause from double-masked engineers at the mission’s control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)....   See also   Perseverance’s ‘sky crane’ captures Mars descent ; and New York Times article   Perseverance’s Pictures From Mars Show NASA Rover’s New Home .

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/nasas-next-mars-rover-could-explore-former-mineral-springs-and-fossil-river-delta Source:   By Paul Voosen, Science Magazine. Excerpt: Update: NASA today announced the destination for its next Mars rover, due for launch in 2020. The agency said it would send the rover to the 50-kilometer-wide Jezero crater, which billions of years ago harbored a lake that half filled the 500-meter-deep basin. The crater also contains within its rim a fossilized river delta, the sediments from a river that spilled into the crater—a promising place to search for evidence of past life. [see photo in article; https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/styles/inline__699w__no_aspect/public/ca_1012NID_Delta_Jezer_Crater_online.jpg?itok=0xVirXxA ] “Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbor life,”  Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington, D.C., said in a ...