Since touching down in Jezero Crater, NASA's Perseverance rover has already cached 6 samples that could one day be brought back to Earth. Astrobiologists hope they hold signs of past microbial life.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory project manager MiMi Aung gave an enthusiastic two thumbs-up and then clenched fists before a roomful of engineers erupted in applause.

The successful deployment of Ingenuity brings NASA one step closer to its first attempt at testing the possibility of powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Members of NASA's Perseverance rover team, in collaboration with the Navajo Nation, have been naming features of scientific interest with words in the Navajo language.

Following a 300 million-mile voyage through space and a dangerous drop to the surface, Perseverance will be put through its paces before getting to a search for ancient Martian life.

Perseverance, set to land on the Red Planet on Thursday, is carrying the most sophisticated robotic biology lab ever launched and a drone meant to make the first-ever powered flight on another world.