NASA
The aeroshell containing Nasa’s Perseverance rover guides itself towards the Martian surface as it descends through the atmosphere in this illustration. Credit: Nasa/JPL-Caltech.

Nasa is to attempt to land its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on the surface of the planet safely on 18 February.

Engineers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in southern California have confirmed that the spacecraft is healthy and on target to touch down in Jezero Crater.

Nasa science mission directorate associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen said: “Perseverance is Nasa’s most ambitious Mars rover mission yet, focused scientifically on finding out whether there was ever any life on Mars in the past.

“To answer this question, the landing team will have its hands full getting us to Jezero Crater – the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted for a landing.”

The Perseverance rover will explore the Martian biological and geological environment using seven scientific instruments, including the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyser (MEDA) meteorological station.

Mars2020 is designed to study Martian rock and soil to search for signs of ancient microbial life.

It is part of a greater Nasa initiative and will help enable future human exploration of Mars.

Designed and built by Airbus, the MEDA is the third Martian environmental station.

The MEDA instrument will provide scientists with Mars weather data such as wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, soil and air temperatures, and more.

JPL mission deputy project manager Jennifer Trosper said: “The Perseverance team is putting the final touches on the complex choreography required to land in Jezero Crater.

“No Mars landing is guaranteed, but we have been preparing a decade to put this rover’s wheels down on the surface of Mars and get to work.”