Perseverance pays off An illustration of the last, critical stage of Mars Perseverance rover's safe landing. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech NASA’s perseverance rover- It started with the type of chatter you might hear from someone setting up a complex sound system. “Voice check, Smith.” “Telemetry?” “I read you…” Lots of names (not actually named Smith and Jones). Calm, measured voices from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, plus others chiming in by laptop and phone from around the world. But the calm overlaid an underlying tension. Because even before the sound checks, there’s also been another bit of control room chatter.