Nasa's Perseverance safely touches down in search of life [see pic without giving twitter a click]

The Guardian ^ | 2/18/2021 | The Guardian

[edwinland]

Nasa’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.

Mission managers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed.

The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, covering 293m miles (472m km) before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 12,000mph (19,000km/h) to begin its approach to touchdown on the planet’s surface.

[edwinland]

Yay

[CTyank]

In before the Mars/Bernie photoshopped version.

[Blueflag]

The math and science that got it there is racist.

[HangnJudge]

Next up to bat - China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianwen-1

[zeugma]

Where’s Marvin?

[DannyTN]

[Paladin2]

They didn’t send a Tesla?

[null and void]

ICWYDT

[Dilbert San Diego]

What is the carbon foot print of the spacecraft, and is it contributing to global warming on Mars? Did it leave a trail of pollution on the journey through space to get to Mars?

[Da Coyote]

Love that Guardian plea for bucks, citing “independent quality news...”

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaah!

[edwinland]

In before the Mars/Bernie photoshopped version.

Haha!

[HangnJudge]

How xenophobic of me

[pierrem15]

Well, it is news quite often independent of any correspondence with reality.

[Rummyfan]

It’s quite an achievement. Congratulations to NASA and the JPL and everyone else involved.

[zeugma]

Marvin is not pleased.

[null and void]

You misspelled zoonotic...

[EEGator]

There's already a Tesla "flying" through space.

[RatRipper]

You need to watch the movie “Hidden Figures”. It is about three black ladies that worked for NASA during the early days of the Mercury and Gemini programs. One of the ladies was Katherine Johnson, whom they billed as a pioneer in developing the math behind orbit and pinpointing the splash-down coordinates. Good movie, but you never know how much is sensationalized.

[HangnJudge]

Cackles uncontrollably

[Hazwaste]

Perfect. Ha ha!