NASA rover attempting most difficult Martian touchdown yet - The Associated Press

Almost 50 years after the first casualty at Mars, NASA is attempting its hardest Martian touchdown yet.

While NASA has done everything possible to ensure success, “there’s always this fear that it won’t work well, it won’t go well,” Erisa Stilley, a landing team engineer, said Tuesday.

A look at NASA’s latest mission:.

NASA has equipped the 1-ton Perseverance — a beefier version of Curiosity — with the latest landing tech to ace this touchdown.

Once down, the six-wheeled Perseverance should be the best driver Mars has ever seen, with more autonomy and range than Curiosity.

That’s why NASA wants Perseverance snooping around Jezero Crater, once home to a lake fed by a river.

Scientists have wanted to get hold of Mars rocks ever since NASA’s Mariners provided the first close pictures a half-century ago.

NASA expects to bring back the rocks as early as 2031, several years before the first astronauts might arrive on the scene.

Speaking of clean, NASA’s Mars Mission Control has never been so spotless

The landing team will be spread over multiple rooms, with NASA bigwigs and journalists watching remotely