The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) robotic spacecraft currently en route to Mars. It is scheduled to land on the planet’s Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. The primary mission of the rover is to search for signs of ancient microbial life and collect samples of Martian rocks, soil, and air for possible return to Earth by a future mission. The rover will also test new technologies that could be used by future missions to Mars and other destinations in our solar system.
Perseverance was launched on July 30, 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard an Atlas V rocket operated by United Launch Alliance. The journey from Earth to Mars will take approximately seven months. Upon arrival at Mars, the rover will use its parachute and onboard rockets to slow its descent before touching down inside Jezero Crater using what is known as “skycrane” technology. This will be the first time this method has been used for landing on another planet.
Jezero Crater was chosen as Perseverance’s landing site because it contains evidence of an ancient lake that may have been habitable for microbial life billions of years ago. The crater is also home to an abundance of minerals that could provide clues about the Red Planet’s past climate and geology.
Once it has landed, Perseverance will spend at least one Martian year (equal to about two Earth years) searching for evidence of past life in Jezero Crater. The rover is equipped with a suite of state-of-the-art scientific instruments, including a powerful camera, spectrometers, and a ground-penetrating radar. These tools will help scientists choose which Martian rocks and soils are most likely to contain evidence of ancient life forms.
In addition to searching for signs of past life, Perseverance will also test new technologies that could be used by future missions to explore Mars and other destinations in our solar system. For example, the rover is carrying an experimental tool called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In situ Resource Utilization Experiment) that could produce oxygen from carbon dioxide gas in the Martian atmosphere – a key step towards making human exploration of Mars possible in the future.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover represents NASA’s continued commitment to understanding whether life has ever existed beyond our home planet Earth – and if so, how it might have arisen and evolved over time. This latest mission builds upon decades of previous work by NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity as well as NASA’s Curiosity Rover – all part of humanity’s ongoing quest to discover our place in the universe