SEE: First pictures from NASA's latest Mars mission
On Friday morning, the NASA Perseverance rover landed safely on Mars after an incredible 300-million-mile journey.
The spacecraft, affectionately named 'Percy', touched down on the Red Planet in the early hours of the morning and within minutes had sent its first pictures back to home base.
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The first picture it shared was taken on the Jezero Crater and shows off a clear view of the landscape (featuring the rover's own shadow).
There is something special about the first few days, because we have just landed a representative of the planet Earth on a place on Mars that no one has ever been to.
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The rover had left Earth six months ago and luckily had a smooth journey, ending with a landing that the mission's team called "flawless".
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation's spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet in the 2030s.
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The human race has been obsessed with space and all it contains for as long as anyone can remember, but there is a special kind of fixation and fascination that we have with Mars.
The Perseverance mission is one that could give us even more answers to burning questions.
Its mission will be full of firsts as it searches for signs of life on our neighbouring planet.
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It will be the first to fly a helicopter on another planet, have the first recordings of sound on Mars, and much more.
It certainly won't get bored very easily, seeing as it has a super packed schedule.
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Percy is the most sophisticated rover NASA has ever built and his journey will have him exploring Jezero Crater, which was an ancient lake that dates as far back as 3.9-billion years ago.
It will be searching for microfossils in the soil and rocks, with samples collected on-site being sent back to Earth, but they will only arrive by the 2030s.
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During a press conference, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, showed the world what he usually did after a mission.
"Every time we do a launch or we do a landing, we get two plans. One plan is the one we want to do, and then there's that second plan." - #NASAScience's @Dr_ThomasZ celebrates a successful #CountdownToMars landing by ripping up the contingency plan. pic.twitter.com/pexxK5a07d
— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021
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You can follow Percy along on his journey using this map created by NASA:
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This map was created by engineers and each dot represents the point where the rover ended its drive and came to a stop.
Once again, we are in absolute awe of the possibilities science and space have to offer.
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Now, if you look up at the sky, you might not be able to see it, but Mars had been close to the moon very recently, so why not send a quick little wave to the hardworking little rover?
For more of the best Darren, Keri, and Sky moments, listen here:
Main image courtesy of CNET/YouTube