Rover Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars Thursday at 2:55pm CT. The mission of NASA’s 5th rover to set down on the Red Planet is to collect rock and soil samples from the site of an ancient lake. The samples will be collected and returned to earth via another rover by the 2030’s.
Milwaukee Public Museum Planetarium Director Bob Bonadurer says there will likely be plenty of nail biting at NASA headquarters as the rover begins its seven minute descent. During that time NASA scientists and engineers can’t do anything but wait and hope all the hours of preparation pay off.
Bonadurer says if you look up tonight just after sunset you’ll see Mars and the Moon very close together in the southern sky.
