19 February 2021
NASA s
Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars yesterday, 203 days after being launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The rover, which is powered by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) developed and fuelled in partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE), will explore the Jezero Crater and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth.
Members of NASA s Perseverance Mars rover team watch in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars (Image: NASA)
The successful touchdown was announced in mission control at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 3:55pm EST. The rover - described by NASA as a robotic geologist and astrobiologist - will undergo several weeks of testing before it begins its two-year science investigation of the crater, where it will investigate the rock and sediment of the ancient lakebed and river delta to
The following is a news release from Idaho National Laboratory. IDAHO FALLS — Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, the management and operating contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), announces the next step in designing a new power system for space exploration. The Dynamic Radioisotope Power System (RPS) will be designed for […]