WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th February, 2021) Satellite images of the Jezero Crater on Mars, where the Perseverance Rover is slated to land Thursday afternoon show clear skies overhead even as storms rage elsewhere on the Red Planet, NASA scientist Al Chen said in a news briefing on Wednesday.
"We just entered spring in the northern hemisphere which is actually the beginning of the Martian new year ... but the weather conditions look pretty favorable for us right now," Chen said. "There are some clouds that are out there and some polar cap ice storms but nothing near our Jezero landing sight."
Perseverance is due to complete its six-month journey to Mars with a perilous seven-minute final descent, when rocket thrusters on a platform holding the six-wheel rover need to slow a parachute-enabled descent from about 200 miles per hour to walking speed for touchdown.
Chen described the final seven minutes as "the most critical and dangerous" part of the mission with no guarantee of success.
The landing is scheduled for 3:35 p.m. (8:35 p.m. GMT).
The mission will attempt to find signs of ancient microbial life near the bone-dry Jezero Crater, which formed a lake and river delta 3 billion years ago, NASA said.
The Rover will collect rock and soil samples to be cashed for a later mission, possibly with humans, that will return the samples to Earth, according to NASA.
