10 Amazing Things Humans Did in Space in 2021
While this year may have sucked pretty hard on Earth, some pretty cool stuff happened in (and/or near) space in 2021. And while robots and rockets tend to steal the show, all of those bits of technology were designed, built, and operated by humans! Let’s look back at the past year:
1. NASA landed its latest rover on Mars—and we all got to see it!
In February, NASA landed the Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater, Mars. Percy is armed with 23 separate cameras, a suite of which were specifically designed to capture the entry, descent, and landing sequence of the rover. Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve gotten a view of a rover landing from the rover itself—Curiosity had its Mars Descent Imager (MARDI), which also sent back a landing video—but this is the first time we’ve had multiple camera angles and full motion video. The result is simply stunning.
2. The UAE and China joined the Martian ranks!
