The American space agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has successfully landed its Perseverance rover in a deep crater near the planet Mars` equator called Jezero.

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Engineers at NASA`s mission control in California erupted with joy when confirmation of touchdown came through, the BBC reported on Thursday.

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"The good news is the spacecraft, I think, is in great shape," said Matt Wallace, the mission`s deputy project manager.

"Congratulations to NASA and everyone whose hard work made Perseverance`s historic landing possible. Today proved once again that with the power of science and American ingenuity, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility," US President Joe Biden tweeted.

The six-wheeled vehicle will now spend at least the next two years drilling into the local rocks, looking for evidence of past life.

Jezero is thought to have held a giant lake billions of years ago. And where there`s been water, there`s the possibility there might also have been life.

The signal alerting controllers that Perseverance was down and safe arrived at 20:55 GMT. In the past they might have hugged and high-fived but strict coronavirus protocols meant they had all been separated by Perspex screens. A respectful fist bump was about all they could manage.

Nonetheless, the excitement was evident. And the applause continued when the first two images came in. They were taken by low-resolution engineering cameras. There was dust covering the still-attached translucent lens covers, but it was possible to see a flat surface both in front and behind the rover.

Post-landing analysis indicated the vehicle had come down about 2 km to the southeast of the delta feature in Jezero that Perseverance plans to investigate.

"We are in a nice flat spot. The vehicle is only tilted by about 1.2 degrees," said Allen Chen, who led the landing team. "So we did successfully find that parking lot and have a safe rover on the ground. And I couldn`t be more proud of my team for doing that."

Steve Jurczyk, the acting administrator at NASA, also saluted the achievement: "What a credit to the team. Just what an amazing team to work through all the adversity and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on Mars, plus the challenges of Covid. Just an amazing accomplishment."

Mike Watkins, the director of Nasa`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the home of the agency`s Mars missions, added: "There is something special about the first few days (of the mission) because we have just landed a representative of Planet Earth on a place on Mars that no-one has ever been to."

This is the second one-tonne rover put on Mars by the US space agency.

The first, Curiosity, was landed in a different crater in 2012. It trialled innovative descent technologies, including a rocket-powered cradle, that Perseverance has also now put to good effect.