NASA to host virtual briefing on February 18 Perseverance Mars rover landing tonight

Mars Rover Perseverance (Image: NASA/ JPL)

The United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will host a virtual media briefing at 3.00 am on January 28 (India time) to discuss the upcoming landing of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

The event will be aired live on NASA TV, NASA website, and YouTube.

Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Lori Glaze, Director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Matt Wallace, Mars 2020 Deputy Project Manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Allen Chen, Mars 2020 entry, descent, and landing lead, JPL, Ken Farley, Mars 2020 project scientist, Caltech, and Briony Horgan, Mars 2020 science team member, Purdue University, will attend the Perseverance rover briefing and discuss what the mission and the landing day would look like.

The Perseverance rover is supposed to land on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, carrying new scientific tools and technologies onboard, including the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.

Perseverance will land in the Jezero Crater on the Red Planet and it will be the first artificial object to land on Mars since the 2018 Insight lander’s descent. It will also be the first rover to touch down on Mars since the Curiosity rover landing in 2012.