Paris (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Thursday evening the successful landing of the NASA rover on Mars, which is taking a Franco-American instrument on board, hailing "magnificent teamwork".
"Here we are! Here we are!", Tweeted the Head of State, after witnessing the perilous landing operation live, broadcast by Cnes, the French space agency.
"It's a magnificent teamwork. It's very moving to live it with you, it makes us admire", launched the Head of State to the Cnes teams gathered at its Paris headquarters, relieved to see their successful scientific work.
The Perserverance robot takes with it SuperCam, a Franco-American instrument developed in particular by the CNRS and CNES, at the heart of the mission.
"Tonight, the French can be proud of this scientific cooperation", added Emmanuel Macron leaving Cnes, where he spoke with the scientists who showed him the map of Mars and the precise place of the landing of the rover, the Jezero crater.
Just before, the Head of State, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron, spoke at a distance with Thomas Pesquet, who is currently training in California, at Space X, for his second mission to the planned International Space Station (ISS) April 20.
The French astronaut reiterated his call for female candidates as part of the new recruitment campaign for the European Space Agency (ESA), which he represents, hoping for "parity" for the future promotion.
A "call for female candidates" that Emmanuel Macron considered "very important", before asking him if he was vaccinated against Covid-19 - to which Thomas Pesquet replied "yes".
The first images of the robot's landing reached Earth after a ten-minute lag with Mars, the time it took for the light to travel more than 220 million kilometers.
The American rover Perseverance, the result of international cooperation, is the largest and most complex vehicle ever sent to Mars.
He put down around 10 p.m. (Paris time) his wheels on the ground of the red planet, after "seven minutes of terror".
During this crazy deceleration operation, the robot went from a speed of 20,000 km / h to zero in a few moments.
The chosen destination, Jezero Crater, an ancient lake, is the most dangerous landing site ever attempted.
This arrival marks the beginning of the search for traces of a past life, to try to answer the question: "have we always been alone in the Universe?".
SuperCam will study Martian rocks in sound and light, with its laser beam, and for the first time a microphone, in search of this ancestral life.
© 2021 AFP