NASA Releases Novel Footage From Perseverance Rover During Its Mars Landing

This past week NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on the fairly unknown terrain of Mars and captured some amazing footage.

Perseverance means persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. The difficult but certainly not impossible task of landing the fifth rover on Mars near Jezero Crater on February 18, nearly seven months after its takeoff to the Red Planet, is the stuff of scientists, engineers, and ordinary people’s dreams.

The rover is intended to investigate the planet and search for any signs of life, marking a new space exploration era.

Perseverance in action:

How it started: How it’s going: pic.twitter.com/oNYqiCOPX1

— NASA Astrobiology: Exploring Life in the Universe (@NASAAstrobio) February 22, 2021

“How could we not explore?… It’s part of who we are.”

Matt Wallace, @NASAPersevere deputy project manager at @NASAJPL, reflects on the reasons we send rovers to Mars: pic.twitter.com/8YVx0BMrrs

— NASA (@NASA) February 22, 2021

Matt Wallace has been working with NASA for 25+ years and believes that the primary reason for leading Mars exploration and his life devotion to science is because “How could we not explore?…. It’s part of who we are.”

Humans are inquisitive creatures, and the possibility and likelihood that there is more life beyond the planet our kind has ever known are astronomical. Wallace is just one of the many dedicated scientists devoted to science and pioneering space exploration.

This man was Chief Engineer on the last 4 Mars landings, and was an Advisor for Perseverance! His reaction is priceless: #Mars2020 @NASA pic.twitter.com/RQ5gPRzz4c

— Owen Sparks 🌎 (@OwenSparks_) February 20, 2021

It’s crucial to recognize the diverse crew of talented individuals whose efforts reflect the monumental landing. In the video released, Miguel San Martin is an Argentinean engineer who has been responsible for leading as Chief Engineer for a majority of the Mars missions. According to USA Today, “For an agency that has long been seen in movies, TV shows and its own landing broadcasts as being predominantly built of white men, the Perseverance control room provided a striking new look for NASA. In recent years, NASA has come a long way from its first astronaut class in 1978. On Thursday, many in the team of engineers that guided Perseverance on its journey were women and people of color. And most have worked for a decade to pull it off.”

Woman behind NASA Mars landing 2021: Dr Swati Mohan

– Born in India
– Immigrated to US
– Inspired by Star Trek
– Studied hard
– PhD from MIT
– Lead engineer at NASA
– Flight controller for Mars mission pic.twitter.com/A3ASxlvCWK

— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) February 20, 2021

It is a truly remarkable accomplishment to be the face behind landing the Perseverance rover but even more astounding to be an Indian-American woman doing it. Dr. Swati Mohan did something inconceivable one hundred years ago. People like her make the future seem like an optimistic world where the possibilities are endless, and the doors are open for all.