Nasa Mars rover heads for daunting landing

The moment of truth has arrived for the US space agency's Perseverance rover.

The six-wheeled robot is fast approaching Mars after a seven-month, 470-million-km journey from Earth for what unquestionably will be the most challenging part of its mission.

It's got to put itself down safely on the Red Planet - a task that has befuddled so many spacecraft before it.

But if Perseverance is successful, it has an amazing opportunity to find signs of past life on Mars, according to BBC News.

Never has a science mission gone to the planet with so sophisticated a suite of instruments; never has a robot been targeted at so promising a location.

Jezero Crater, the intended touchdown zone, bears all the hallmarks in satellite imagery of once having held a giant lake. And where there's been abundant water, perhaps there's been biology as well.