♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, touchdown. nasa's rover making its daring descent to mars. >> touchdown confirmed, perseverance safely on the surface of mars. >> searching for signs that we're not alone. >> if we can find evidence of life on mars, then we're going to realize that we're a bigger part of the life story. it's not j eth it's a universe story. plus, single mothers struggling to survive during the pandemic. >> to have a job, a good job at that, and then still be homeless, was like, what am i doing wrong? >> pushing through the hardships and heartache on their own. >> being able to be there for your kids, or the choice of work and kids, it shouldn't be a choice. >> teaching their families a

lesson in resilience and finding joy. find your rhythm. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. washed your hands a lot today? probably like 40 times. hands feel dry? like sandpaper. introducing new dove handwash, with 5 x moisturizer blend. removes germs in seconds, moisturizes for hours. soft, smooth. new dove handwash. soft, smooth. ♪ ♪ ♪

receive a chargepoint home flex charger or a $500 public charging credit. see your volvo retailer for details. ♪ thanks for joining us. the planet mars has its newest resident, perseverance. nasa's most high-tech rover

ever. it made its fiery descent through the red planet's atmosphere earlier today. now sending back breathtaking new images of the planet's surface, already hunting for any sign of life. abc's gio benitez is at mission control. >> are we alone? are we the only ones? >> i think we're just fundamentally curious about our place in the cosmos. >> we've been thinking about the possibility of life on other planets for hundreds of years now. and this is our first opportunity to perhaps find it. >> ignition, two, one, and liftoff -- >> reporter: that is the ambition of mars 2020, just a simple attempt to determine if life exists or has ever existed on another planet. for years nasa scientists have been reaching for the stars --

>> 20 meters off the surface. >> reporter: today they got a planet instead. >> touchdown confirmed. perseverance safely on the surface of mars. >> this is so exciting. the team is beside themselves. it's -- it's so surreal. say tuned, we might get some pictures. >> our job is to think of all the bad things that can happen and try to avoid those. when all good things happen, you feel like you're dreaming. i'm happy to feel like i'm dreaming today. >> reporter: its name, perseverance, the most advanced robot ever to be sent into space, instantly sending this image and this message, tweeting, hello, world, my first look at my forever home. >> hello, mr. president. >> reporter: we were there a president joe biden called nasa's acting administrator to congratulate nasa. >> i will tell percy you said hello, sir. >> reporter: "percy," its nickname at nasa, traveled 300 million miles, hit the ground rolling in search of answers. >> it's going to smell, taste, listen to, look at mars in neve

>> we're landing the heaviest payload that we've ever landed. perseverance rover is roughly the size of a car, about 10 feet long. >> she is the biggest rover, the heaviest rover. she has got packed with firsts from the bottom to the top. >> reporter: it's part of a mission that has been over eight years in the making, with a price tag of $2.7 billion. getting there wasn't easy. >> mars is a graveyard of spacecraft. >> one flaw in the entire process and that could be the end of the mission. >> reporter: when it comes to the landing, it's hope, not science, that nasa relies on. >> we call it the seven minutes of terror because it takes approximately seven minutes for the spacecraft to make it from the top of the martian atmosphere to safely wheels on the ground. butse the spacecas t manage that descent stage all by itself. >> reporter: the spaceship

piercing the atmosphere at close to 12,000 miles per hour. >> it's so fast that we could burn up in the atmosphere if we didn't have our aeroshell, our heat shield. the process of entry slows us down to 500 miles an hour but that's not slow enough to land. so we have to open a parachute. >> too fast to land so perseverance will jettison the parachute and come down on a se. >> about 65 feet above the surface of mars, we do the sky crane maneuver. we actually lower the rover below its jet backpack, then place it gently on the surface. >> reporter: this afternoon, after seven months in space, a successful landing on anent,ieup lake called jezero crater, 3.5 billion years

old. >> when life was just getting a toehold here on earth, mars was wet and warm, a very similar environment to that which earth has. >> based on everything we know about that environment, it was habitable. life should have been there. i think we're very optimistic, i'm very optimistic, that we will find signs of ancient life there if they everybody existed on mars. there's no reason why they shouldn't be there. >> reporter: mission control doesn't expect to find anything alive on a planet that holds almost no oxygen. >> mars was once like earth in that it had lakes, it had hroh systems like yellowstone bubbling off. one of the most important questions in mars explosiration is, what happened? >> understand some of those processes, we don't understand all of them. we can't account for the amount of water that should have been there in the past, so that's a big mystery. >> reporter: in fact, one of the first experiments -- >> it's our first attempt to

make oxygen on mars by pulling apart the co2 into carbon dioxide and oxygen. >> reporter: with so many questions up in the air, and with hopes of finding hints of life, a few gadgets hitching a ride on the rover. on board, an instrument called super cam, with a laser that can melt rocks 25 feet away, then analyze if there's any evidence of life. >> when the laser light strikes that surface, it causes the rock to boil, essentially. the light that comes back to the rover tells you what elements are present in that rock. >> reporter: then there's ingenuity. this is going to be the first-ever helicopter to fly on another planet. it is just 4 pounds. that will be historic because it is the first time you will see the most epic drone-like pictures that we've ever seen, and it's going to be coming from this. >> no space exploration has ever attempted flying through the atmosphere of another planet.

>> adding aerial dimension is absolutely game-changing. >> reporter: in this way, perseverance is paving the way for future human exploration on mars. as for humans traveling to mars, the science happening right now may just get us a few steps closer. >> the discussion of when humans will be getting to mars is not that far away. we're talking about the early -- the 2030s. >> it's going to take some time. it's going to take some investment. it's more a question of will.sa person. but it's not just about other planets. it's also about learning about our own planet. >> it helps us understand better a very key perspective about how delicate, fragile, and priceless our planet is.

>> our thanks to gio. up next, holding on to hope. single mothers raising a family while losing just about everything. kim is now demonstrating her congestion. save it slimeball. i've upgraded to mucinex. we still have 12 hours to australia. kim, no! mucinex lasts 3x longer for 12 hours. just between us, cleaning with a mop and bucket is such a hassle. well i switched to swiffer wet jet and it's awesome.

it's an all-in-one that absorbs dirt and grime deep inside. and it helps prevent streaks and haze. stop cleaning. start swiffering find your rhythm. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. this is my body of proof. proof of less joint pain and clearer skin. proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... ...with humira. humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms.

it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible joint damage and clear skin in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask your rheumatologist about humira. go to humira.com to see proof in action. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. so you went to ross to refresh your look for less? and snag top brands for prices that have you, like "oooh yeah"!

styles that take you here or here or even right there. slip into the best bargains ever... at ross. yes for less!

slip into the best bargains ever... at ross. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you know when you're at ross and find just what you need... to make any space your space? (sighs) yes! that's yes for less. get the best bargains ever for every room and every budget. at ross. yes for less.

♪ just today, vice president kamala harris called it a national emergency. the more than 2.5 million women forced out of the workforce since the beginning of the pandemic. across the country, single mothers struggling to take care of their kids and hang on to hope under the most dire of circumstances. my colleague kyra phillips has the story. >> reporter: every day, 16-year-old martasia tells her mom "god will provide." ♪ finally see what god can do ♪ >> reporter: and that this road she travels down now will provide. for her and her five daughters. every week, alicia carter delivers mail to homes in maryland's prince george's county.

homes in one of the nation's wealthiest black communities. the kind of home alicia carter dreams of. because right now, this mail carrier doesn't even have one. >> i was so shocked to find out you were a mail carrier. >> yeah. >> and you're homeless. what do you want people to know about that? >> to have a job, a good job at that, and then still be homeless, it's like, what am i doing wrong? >> reporter: just keep working, not giving up. from alicia's mouth to god's ears. alicia, why didn't you want to tell anybody at the post office that you were homeless? >> i'm more independent. i really don't like -- more like handouts or someone feeling pity for me. >> reporter: a commitment to her family that will take this unwaveringl carrier

down a surprising route to recovery. >> fortune comes in many things, mostly they're people. >> reporter: with ran there are more than 13 million single parents in the u.s. 80% are single moms. >> a lot of the clients are calling this recession a she-cession, it's averaging women much more than men. >> reporter: this pandemic has ravaged poverty-stricken cities like baltimore, hitting people of color, particularly black single moms, the hardest. >> women of color are more likely to be holding an in-person job, especially in the service sector, that's been hit more severely by covid-19. i bristle at the idea that people say women are opting out of the labor market. they're not opting out, they're being pushed out. >> reporter: alicia lost her job when the pandemic hit. then the family lost their rental house. this hotel became their home.

then when the money ran out -- >> you all lived in the car together? >> we were all in one seat, she was in the middle. >> how did you survive that? >> i really -- it hurt me more than them. as long as they were together, they were happy. >> reporter: for single mother angel marino, a certified medical assistant in detroit, she had no choice but to keep reporting to her job at a hospital. >> i can't afford not to work. >> reporter: we've been following her story since the pandemic began. in december, she talked with my colleague, rebecca jarvis. >> how have you been managing all of this? >> oh my goodness. it's just been very difficult since the pandemic began in march. thank god i have a team, people i work with, my manager, my supervisor. they are very resourceful. >> reporter: even before the pandemic, finances were tight for angel and her three children, ages 10, 7, and 6. she never wants them to be

homeless like she was as a child, after her mother died. >> and i want my kids to have stability. >> reporter: child care has been one of her biggest problems to solve. in the spring her children were in a free day care for essential workers, a lifeline funded for a time by philanthropies. >> child care is not a family issue, it's a business issue. child care is a piece of critical infrastructure, like roads and bridges that help working parents get to work. it's especially important that we get single moms backnt workforce, because you can't work an in-person job if you don't have child care. >> reporter: her children finally entered an in-person learning pod at their school. but it had to close in december. covid cases spiked again. >> the choice of work and kids shouldn't be a choice. i shouldn't have to -- i want to be the best mom i can be. >> reporter: but angel has a hard-won resilience. >> we can do it, though. i was born for this. i was born to cross mountains.

>> reporter: two months later, angel proved that was true. >> if there's a mountain, i'm going to get over it. speak positivity. >> reporter: angel not only held on to her job, she even got a raise. but the trickiest part, her kids. luckily, she found a remote school program at the local "y." >> i think they'll be proud of me. when we all look back on this in the future, like mom, we've been through a lot together. my kids are resilient. >> reporter: the "y" combined with the program at their school reopening has been a vital lifeline for single working moms like angel. >> i'm optimistic. i will tell all the single moms out there, don't be afraid. don't live in fear. take one day at a time. >> there are very tangible things you can do right now to keep women in the labor force, keep single moms afloat with their families. because we know this is temporary. it just blows my mind right now

that we have a very solvable problem in front of us and just lack of political will to address it. >> reporter: for alicia carter and her daughters, left living in that car, the road to success was humbling. >> we were wearing each other's shoes and clothes. wear the same clothes. we had to -- i don't know, it was just -- it was a lot. had to go through school and have friends be like, oh, if you ever need anything. but you didn't want to say anything because you didn't want them to make fun of you or -- i don't know. >> reporter: but her classmates didn't make fun of her, they rallied around her. eventually, alicia told a friend about her situation, and that friend found a safe haven located in the midst of baltimore's toughest neighborhoods, sarah's hope. a shelter known for helping single mothers.

>> got to spend a lot of quality time together, get to learnhe er emotionally,icly, ly >> what' your fore thing mo >> s's aaythe r . things money just can't buy. a resilience that resonated with linda wilson. >> you're the one that rides up all the time? on my gosh. >> reporter: remember that neighbor we met on alicia's route? >> when i was 20, i was a lost childlike many of us. >> reporter: linda too was once homeless, but helped by a total stranger. now she's paying it forward. >> just to help you and your kids. >> thank you, oh my god. >> i've been there. we can grab joy anywhere we can. >> you go through a struggle together with your family, it makes you stronger. >> happy birthday! >> every dark place always has a light or something that just brings light to you. rorter: proving that

sometimes struggles cansendipoue landing her position with the postal service in september. by the end of the year, she was ready to say good-bye to 2020. and able to deliver her family a post christmas present. welcome to the carter family's new home, made possible with assistance from the shelter. >> so what is next for this beautiful family? >> happy times. home-cooked meals. more tacos. >> more tacos, i want to come over. >> reporter: the whole family now savoring the sweet sounds of that spiritual promise. ♪ my life when you come to my rescue ♪ >> our thanks to kyra. up next, a special surprise.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (quiet piano music) ♪ ♪ comfort in the extreme. the lincoln family of luxury suvs. so you're my fairy godmayo? yes, i wield the power of best foods to magically transform any food into creamy, dreamy works of art. boop. with a butter knife? this is a mayo knife. ♪ plaque psorias. ...t itching the stinging. myr mine swollen... painful.

emerge tremfyant™ with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. tremfya® is also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™ janssen can help you explore cost support options. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ findourhythm.. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best

with emergen-c. this is a no-nonsense message from three. small business insurance is usually so complicated, you need to be a lawyer to understand it. that's why three was created. it's a better kind of business insurance. it's only three pages. straightforward. if you own it, three covers it. got a cheese slice for "spokesperson?" that's me.

i don't even need to see what's happening behind me to know it's covered. (screaming)th commer. logo.nsense. ju.

finally tonight, a

heartwarming reunion with a splashy photobomb. here's katherine dalrimple handling dolphins at an aquarium in florida. her dad home early after deployment in afghanistan, coming to her work to surprise his daughter. but one of katherine's friends couldn't resist. flipping out alongside her. and that is "nightline."