NASA has landed a rover on Mars, and social media users including Bill Nye, Mike Pence and Buzz Aldrin have celebrated the remarkable achievement.
This was a particularly difficult landing for the US space agency as they were touching down in the Jezero crater – littered with obstacles including jagged rocks.
Taking to Twitter, users watching the live feed of the landing from home joined a jubilant mission control team in celebrating the achievement.
The first posts focused on the succesful landing, with follow up tweets covering the amazing first images sent back from the engineering camera on the rover.
As well as tweets from the likes of Brian May, Buzz Aldrin and Bill Nye, firms also got involved including Krispy Kreme asking NASA to ‘look for shop locations’.
This was a particularly difficult landing for the US space agency as they were touching down in the Jezero crater – littered with obstacles including jagged rocks
The first posts focused on the succesful landing, with follow up tweets covering the amazing first images sent back from the engineering camera on the rover
NASA shared a video of the mission control team cheering, bumping fists and celebrating the successful landing, saying ‘touchdown confirmed’.
Science communicator Bill Nye simply tweeted ‘touchdown’ and Professor Brian Cox described the achievement as ‘just wonderful’.
Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May congratulated NASA after the first photo from Perseverance was shared.
Brian Cox, Bill Nye and Tim Peake were among the first to celebrate the achievement of NASA landing Perseverance on the Martian surface
‘WOW !!!! First transmitted photo from PERSEVERANCE now safely landed on Mars. CONGRATULATIONS to Jim Bell and the entire Perseverance team. NASA/JPL-Caltech rocks!!!,’ he tweeted.
Former US Vice President, Mike Pence, congratulated NASA on the achievement, adding that ‘Perseverance will help us continue to unlock the mysteries of space and one day land Americans on the Red Planet’.
Director Ron Howard, who created a TV series on a future crewed Mars mission, shared a link to the story of the landing, saying ‘NASA’s astrobiology rover Perseverance makes historic Mars landing’.
Second man on the Moon, Dr Buzz Aldrin, shared a video of him waving and added the words ‘Perseverance pays off!’.
In the UK Philip Schofield tweeted: ‘Congratulations NASA … now that IS rocket science! Amazing achievement. Perseverance is alive and on the surface of Mars’.
It wasn’t just social media users celebrating the arrival of the NASA Perseverance rover in the Jezero crater.
Schoolchildren in the Bosnian village of Jezero were also excited to see the landing in a crater named after their tiny hometown.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, Lockheed Martin and SpaceX all congratulated NASA, with the vice present declaring it another great day for American leadership in space
Jezero means lake in most Slavic languages had been chosen as a name by NASA because it shares similar geological characteristics to the vast, rocky crater at the edge of a remnant river delta on Mars.
This river delta – long dried up – was carved into the red planet billions of years ago.
When the town, home to just over 1,000 people, learned about this in 2018, everyone found it ‘very, very positive and also odd news’, said Ruzicic, who had then checked the information through the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and established links with NASA.
Director Ron Howard, Phillip Schofield and Dr Brian May shared their amazement at the achievement
Lockheed Martin and SpaceX both welcomed Perseverance to Mars, congratulating NASA on ‘another successful mission’ to the Red Planet.
McDonald’s even tweeted a future prediction for Mars, saying ‘One day it will also get you McDelivery (in Mars!)’.
It wasn’t just McDonald’s getting in on the celebration, Krispy Kreme tweeted: ‘Hey @NASAPersevere , when you get to Mars, can you report back any good locations for a new shop? Smiling face with open mouth.’
McDonald’s in Canada responded to Perseverance on Twitter to say that one day you’ll be able to get a McDelivery on Mars
Second man on the Moon, Dr Buzz Aldrin, shared a video of him waving at the Perseverance mission control team as they celebrated the landing
The European Space Agency, which will work with NASA on returning samples gathered by Perserverance to Earth, celebrated the first image sent back to Earth.
‘On Mars!! Looking forward to amazing science, new adventures and exploring farther,’ the agencies Operations team tweeted.
Twitter messaged NASA to ask ‘girl did you make it?’ to which the space agency, via the Perseverance account, replied ‘I stuck the landing, but the landing is just the beginning. Let’s go’.
NASA MARS 2020: THE MISSION WILL SEE THE PERSEVERANCE ROVER AND INGENUITY HELICOPTER SEARH FOR LIFE
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission will search for signs of ancient life on on the Red Planet in a bid to help scientists better understand how life evolved on Earth.
Named Perseverance, the main car-sized rover will explore an ancient river delta within the Jezero Crater, which was once filled with a 1,600ft deep lake.
It is believed that the region hosted microbial life some 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago and the rover will examine soil samples to hunt for evidence of the life.
Nasa’s Mars 2020 rover (artist’s impression) will search for signs of ancient life on Mars in a bid to help scientists better understand how life evolved on our own planet
The $2.5 billion (£1.95 billion) Mars 2020 spaceship launched on July 30 witht he rover and helicopter inside – and will land on February 18, 2021.
Perseverance is designed to land inside the crater and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth for further analysis.
A second mission will fly to the planet and return the samples, perhaps by the later 2020s in partnership with the European Space Agency.
This concept art shows the Mars 2020 rover landing on the red planet via NASA’s ‘sky-crane’ system