38. Descending

This illustration gives a clear view of Perseverance’s descent towards Mars’ surface. As Perseverance entered the planet’s atmosphere, it split from its cruise rocket. Then the rover was left attached to its descent stage, which NASA has called a kind of “jetpack.” The descent stage is equipped with rockets that ignite to slow down the spacecraft’s speed. And at about 66 feet from the surface, this section lowered Perseverance down using special cables.