Perseverance rover: Nasa robot heading for a bulls-eye landing

The American space agency says its Perseverance rover is lined up perfectly for its landing on Mars.

The robot is heading for a touchdown on Thursday in a crater called Jezero just north of the planet's equator.

Its mission objectives will be to search for signs of past life and to collect and prepare rock samples for return to Earth in the 2030s.

Engineers told reporters that as things stand they don't plan to make any more changes to the robot's trajectory.

All the navigation data indicates it is right on track to intersect Mars at the intended moment in time and space.

"We still have the ability to do another manoeuvre if we need to, but we don't expect we'll have to," Jennifer Trosper, Nasa's deputy project manager for Perseverance, told BBC News.

Tuesday saw Perseverance duck under half-a-million km left to travel.