Perseverance lands on Mars today! Here's what you need to know

Today, February 18, 2021 at 20:44 UTC (3:44 p.m. Eastern US time), if all goes well, another robotic rover will land on the planet Mars.

But we won't know if it worked until 20:55 UTC (3:55 p.m. Eastern), because it takes 11 minutes and 22 seconds for the radio signal to travel the 200+ million kilometers from Mars to Earth. Hopefully, at that time we will find out that the rover Perseverance has safely, if terrifyingly, set down on another world.

[UPDATE (February 18, 20101 at 21:15 UTC): PER...