The hazardous landing that the NASA probe Perseverance will face during its planned landing on Mars has been highlighted in a dramatic video.
The spacecraft will have to execute a complex series of manoeuvres when it hurtles towards the Red Planet at a speed of 20,000km/h.
The NASA video - known as "Seven Minutes of Terror" - compares the conditions Perseverance will face in its scheduled landing next February to "slamming the brakes".
Only 40 per cent of the space agency's missions to Mars have successfully landed, NASA said.
"Hundreds of things have to go just right during this nail-biting drop," a NASA statement said.
And because it takes 11 minutes for the rover to send information back to Earth – at which point the rover's descent will have already been finished – Perseverance must act autonomously.
Ten minutes before the landing, the rover sheds surplus equipment and its thrusters activate to direct the spacecraft.
Mars' atmosphere will naturally begin to slow the craft, while also heating it up to temperatures around 1300C. The inside of Perseverance, however, will feel room temperature.
Once the craft has slowed to 1600km/h, a parachute 21.5 metres in diameter deploys to further decelerate the rover.
After the parachute opens, the heat shield is dropped, allowing the instruments inside the rover to zero in on the planet below.
The craft uses a camera on board to navigate its way to the surface.
The parachute can only slow Perseverance down to 320km/h, after which point it will be cut away. As the rover approaches the surface, rocket engines push against the rover to slow it down to 2.7km/h.
About 12 seconds before touchdown, the rover drops cables toward the planet's surface and locks its wheels and legs into place. As soon as the wheels touch the ground, the cables are cut.
Perseverance plans to land at the Jezero crater to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars.
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