It has also been criticized as a "jobs program" for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, as well as for its key contractors Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman.
"The Perseverance rover is actually going to investigate exactly these processes and reactions that cause the sequestration of water in the crust," she said.
NASA said more than 95 percent of near-Earth asteroids the size of 2001 FO32 or larger have been catalogued and none of them has any chance of impacting our planet over the next century.
“Touchdown confirmed,” Swati Mohan, the lead guidance and operations specialist announced from the control room. “Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars.”
