Touchdown on Mars for Thales SuperCam

On 18 February 2021, the world watched with fascination as NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed successfully on the surface of Mars following its launch in July 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Captured by the rover’s onboard cameras (of which there are 23 in total) making its descent to the 28 mile wide Jezero Crater, located just north of the Martian equator in the Isidis Planitia region, Perseverance is now on a mission to explore the site for the next two years seeking signs of previous microbial life. 

Earlier studies have provided scientists with evidence that the area was once filled with water, home to an ancient river delta believed to have long ago been a habitable environment. By analysing samples of rock and soil in the exploration site that are more than three billion years old, scientists will aim to delve deeper into whether life really did exist at some point on the Red Planet — and what that may have looked like.