NASA’s Mars rover landing will kick off a complicated multi-mission game of tag between NASA and its international partners as they attempt to collect and return Martian rocks and soil back to Earth for the first time, which will, in turn, provide knowledge for future generations who will one day live on the red planet.
Mars 2020, also known as the Perseverance rover, is set to barrel into the Martian atmosphere Thursday afternoon, slowing from 12,500 mph to 1.5 mph before touchdown.
However, surviving the landing is only step one of the sample-return plan. NASA associate administrator for science Thomas Zurbuchen described the next leg of the mission as “one of the hardest things ever done by humanity and certainly in space science.” NASA