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Rob Manning, Chief Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows NASA's traditional "Lucky Peanuts," as he comments on the Mars 2020 Perseverance's descent which has been described by NASA as "seven minutes of terror," in which flight controllers can only watch helplessly, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Pasadena, Calif. Lucky peanuts have been a fixture in mission control during major mission events for more than 50 years. A NASA rover is hurtling toward a landing on Mars in the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on the red planet. The six-wheeled vehicle, called Perseverance, will be visiting a planet long known as a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft. Ground controllers will be watching nervously Thursday afternoon as the rover makes its descent. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)