6A — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2021
STATE/NATION
NASA rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life
By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAV-
ERAL, Fla. — A NASA
rover streaked through
the orange Martian sky
and landed on the planet
Thursday, Feb. 18, accom-
plishing the riskiest step
yet in an epic quest to
bring back rocks that could
answer whether life ever
existed on Mars.
Ground controllers at
the space agency’s Jet Pro-
pulsion Laboratory in Pas-
adena, California, leaped
to their feet, thrust their
arms in the air and cheered
in both triumph and relief
on receiving confi rmation
that the six-wheeled Perse-
verance had touched down
on the red planet, long a
deathtrap for incoming
spacecraft.
“Now the amazing
science starts,” a jubi-
lant Thomas Zurbuchen,
NASA’s science mission
chief, said at a news con-
ference, where he theatri-
cally ripped up the contin-
gency plan in the event of a
failure and threw the docu-
ment over his shoulders.
The landing marks the
third visit to Mars in just
over a week. Two space-
craft from the United Arab
Emirates and China swung
into orbit around Mars on
successive days last week.
All three missions lifted
off in July to take advan-
tage of the close align-
ment of Earth and Mars,
journeying some 300 mil-
lion miles in nearly seven
months.
Perseverance, the big-
gest, most advanced rover
ever sent by NASA, became
the ninth spacecraft since
the 1970s to successfully
land on Mars, every one of
them from the U.S.
The car-size, pluto-
nium-powered vehicle
arrived at Jezero Crater,
hitting NASA’s smallest
and trickiest target yet: a
5-by-4-mile strip on an
ancient river delta full of
pits, cliffs and rocks. Sci-
entists believe that if life
ever fl ourished on Mars, it
would have happened 3 bil-
lion to 4 billion years ago,
when water still fl owed on
the planet.
Over the next two years,
Percy, as it is nicknamed,
will use its 7-foot (2-meter)
arm to drill down and col-
lect rock samples con-
taining possible signs of
bygone microscopic life.
Three to four dozen chalk-
Bill Ingalls/NASA
NASA/Contributed Photo
Members of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover team watch in mission control at NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, as the fi rst images arrive moments
after the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
This is the fi rst photo NASA’s Perseverance rover beamed
back to Earth after it landed on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. The
rover’s shadow is visible in the photo.
size samples will be sealed
in tubes and set aside to
be retrieved eventually by
another rover and brought
homeward by another
rocket ship. The goal is to
get them back to Earth as
early as 2031.
Scientists hope to
answer one of the cen-
tral questions of theology,
philosophy and space
exploration.
“Are we alone in this
sort of vast cosmic desert,
just fl ying through space, or
is life much more common?
Does it just emerge when-
ever and wherever the
conditions are ripe?” said
deputy project scientist Ken
Williford. “We’re really on
the verge of being able to
potentially answer these
enormous questions.”
China’s spacecraft
includes a smaller rover
that will also seek evidence
of life, if it makes it safely
down from orbit in May
or June. Two older NASA
landers are still humming
along on Mars: 2012′s
Curiosity rover and 2018′s
InSight.
Perseverance was on its
own during its descent, a
maneuver often described
by NASA as “seven min-
utes of terror.”
Flight controllers waited
helplessly as the prepro-
grammed spacecraft hit the
thin Martian atmosphere at
12,100 mph, or 16 times the
speed of sound, slowing as
it plummeted. It released
its 70-foot parachute and
then used a rocket-steered
platform known as a sky
crane to lower the rover the
fi nal 60 or so feet to the
surface.
It took a nail-biting 11
1/2 minutes for the signal
confi rming the landing to
“Take that, Jezero!” a
controller called out.
NASA said that the
descent was fl awless and
that the rover came down
in a “parking lot” — a rel-
More than 100,000
Oregon customers
still without power
Associated Press
PORTLAND — More
than 100,000 customers
remained without power
Thursday, Feb. 18, in
Oregon, a week after a mas-
sive snow and ice storm
swept into the Pacifi c
Northwest and brought
the “most dangerous con-
ditions” seen by utility
workers.
Maria Pope, the CEO of
Portland General Electric,
said during a news confer-
ence Thursday she expects
power to be restored to
more than 90% of the
remaining customers who
are still in the dark by the
end of Friday.
“Customers in this
fi nal stretch are those at
the epicenter of the storm
— people who have been
hardest hit,” Pope said.
“Crews working there are
doing damage assessment
work as well as restoration
work. This is happening so
we can get clarity on the
issues we are facing as well
as restore power as quickly
as possible.”
While Portland Gen-
eral Electric offi cials are
hopeful all but about 15,000
customers will have power
Friday, they also reiterated
there still is a lot of work
to do.
“Since Feb. 11 we have
had all hands on deck,”
said Quintin Gaddis, the
senior manager of substa-
tion and meter operations
for Portland General Elec-
tric. “Right now we have all
work crews focused on hard
hit areas – the southern and
eastern regions.”
Many of the places
without power are in more
remote areas or have exten-
sive damage, Pope said.
The damage the storm
wrought to the power
system was the worst in 40
years. At the peak of the
storm, more than 350,000
customers were without
power and 5,000 power
lines and three substations
were down.
Many school districts in
the hardest-hit areas can-
celed classes. Some dis-
tricts, including Salem-
Keizer Public Schools
— the state’s second-largest
school district — remained
closed Thursday.
COVID-19 shipments
to the state have been
delayed due to weather. At
least four people have died
of carbon monoxide poi-
soning, as they attempted
to stay warm without their
electricity.
Gov. Kate Brown on
Wednesday declared a state
of emergency and issued
a warning to hotels that
authorities would investi-
gate any reports of price
gouging as residents sought
out warm places to stay.
reach Earth, setting off
back-slapping and fi st-
bumping among fl ight con-
trollers wearing masks
against the coronavirus.
Perseverance promptly
sent back two grainy,
black-and-white photos of
Mars’ pockmarked, pim-
ply-looking surface, the
rover’s shadow visible in
the frame of one picture.
atively fl at spot amid haz-
ardous rocks. Hours after
the landing, Matt Wallace,
NASA deputy project man-
ager, reported that the space-
craft was in great shape.
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