Liftoff! NASA spacecraft heads to Mars

The $2.5-billion (€2.1-billion) spacecraft, which launched atop an Atlas V rocket on Thursday, is due to reach Mars in February next year.

The robotic rover has an ambitious mission — to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. Equipped with a helicopter drone, the car-sized craft is designed to study the planet's climate and geology, and collect rock and soil samples.

"This is the first time in history where we're going to go to Mars with an explicit mission to find life on another world — ancient life on Mars," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said on Wednesday.

Technical difficulties 

After the launch, NASA reported that the spacecraft had encountered some technical difficulties. 

"Data indicate the spacecraft had entered a state known as safe mode, likely because a part of the spacecraft was a little colder than expected while Mars 2020 was in Earth's shadow," NASA said. 

When a vessel enters safe mode, it shuts down all but essential systems until it receives new commands from mission control.  

Read more: The facts on Perseverance: Mars 2020 Rover

"Right now, the Mars 2020 mission is completing a full health assessment on the spacecraft and is working to return the spacecraft to a nominal configuration for its journey to Mars," NASA added. 

Perseverance also experienced a delay in setting up its communications link with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, its mission control. 

But Matt Wallace, the mission's deputy project manager, said the issues were not too serious and that the spaceship entering safe mode was not a cause for concern. 

"That's perfectly fine, the spacecraft is happy there," he said. "The team is working through that telemetry, they're going to look through the rest of the spacecraft health."

'We know how to land on Mars'

The US space agency has previously launched eight successful Mars landings. Its Perseverance mission is part of the Artemis program, which aims to establish a human presence on the moon by 2028, as a stepping stone for human missions to Mars after 2030.

Scientists believe the fourth planet from the sun could have hosted life more than 3 billion years ago when it was covered in rivers and lakes and was much warmer than today.

Perseverance is due to land at the base of a 250-meter-deep (820-foot-deep) basin called the Jezero Crater. Scientists believe there's a chance that the site, a former river delta, preserved organic molecules and evidence of microbial life.

But to get there, the rover will have to pull off a complex maneuver — dubbed by engineers as the "seven minutes of terror" — to enter the Martian atmosphere. The robot will have to withstand extreme heat and speeds during its descent, before touching down with the help of supersonic parachutes and mini rocket engines.

"It's without question, a challenge. There's no other way to put it," Bridenstine said. "That being said, we know how to land on Mars, we've done it eight times already. This will be the ninth."

Perseverance is the third Mars mission in as many weeks, with China and the United Arab Emirates launching their own orbiters earlier this month. It is expected to stay on the planet for at least two years.

nm/sms (Reuters, dpa)