Scientists have named the area of Mars where NASA's Perseverance exploration robot is scheduled to land this Thursday, February 18, 'Timanfaya', according to the BBC.
The 'Perseverance' rover, from the Mars 2020 mission belonging to NASA's Mars Exploration Program, will land a few minutes before 10:00 p.m. this Thursday on the surface of the Jezero volcano, in a 1.2 x 1.2 km grid named by the scientific community Timanfaya due to the "great similarities" that the area has with the landscape of the Lanzarote National Park.
It should be remembered that, for years, astronauts, researchers and scientists from the European State Agency (ESA) have been training in the Timanfaya National Park for future expeditions to Mars and the Moon due to its geological analogy.
Launched on July 30, 2020, the Perseverance rover will search for signs of past microbial life, collect select samples of rocks and sediments for future shipment to Earth, characterize the geology and climate of Mars, and pave the way for future human exploration beyond the Moon, according to NASA.
Perseverance is NASA's fifth rover on Mars and, if successful, will be NASA's ninth landing on the Red Planet. Perseverance also carries a technology experiment, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which will attempt the first controlled, powered flight on another planet.
