Mars 2020

NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter touched the surface of the Red Planet after being dropped off from the Perseverance rover. A little more than a week is left before the first flight of the helicopter.

Thanks to the rover's first Martian drive, NASA engineers were able to make sure that Perseverance was indeed capable of covering 200 meters a day in the next two years to collect samples of Martian soil.

Enthusiasts say that the phrase "Dare Mighty Things," the motto of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was encrypted on a parachute in the form of a pattern that can be translated into letters using a binary code.

The footage captures all stages of the rover's descent and landing, from the moment the parachute deploys in the atmosphere of Mars to the separation of the descent stage after Perseverance touched down on the planet's surface.

The mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the touchdown on the Red Planet's Jezero Crater at 3:55 PM EST, but it took about 11 minutes to get a radio signal back from Mars and to know it happened.

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover took a selfie in an area of the Red Planet called Mary Anning, named after the British explorer.

After landing on Mars the next year, Perseverance will begin looking for signs of ancient microbial and micro-organic life on the planet that may have existed 3.8 billion years ago in its rocks and dirt.