Proposed 2020 Mars Rover Science Goals

NASA's Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, arrives at Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.  Its mission: to demonstrate the first powered flight on another planet.  Taking to the Martian skies in Spring 2021.

A technician works on the descent stage for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission inside JPL’s Spacecraft Assembly Facility. Mars 2020 is slated to carry NASA’s next Mars rover to the Red Planet in July of 2020.

On June 21, 2019, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory install the main robotic arm on the Mars 2020 rover.

The Perseverance rover holds many promises: to look for evidence of life on Mars, to collect rock samples meant to be sent to Earth one day, and to test technology that could be used in a future hu...

This map shows where NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover will be dropping 10 samples that a future mission could pick up. 

Taken on March 5, 2021, this color-calibrated image from a Navigation Camera aboard NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover shows tracks from the rover’s first drive (darker marks in the foreground) an...

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie over a rock nicknamed “Rochette,” on September 10, 2021, the 198th Martian day, or sol of the mission. Two holes can be seen where the rover used its...

This diagram, superimposed on a photo of Martian landscape, illustrates a concept called "adaptive caching," which is in development for NASA's 2020 Mars rover mission.

The Mars 2020 rover undergoes an "eye" exam after several cameras were installed. The rover carries everything from wide-angle landscape cameras to narrow-angle high-resolution zoom lens cameras. T...

This image presents a selection of the 23 cameras on NASA's 2020 Mars rover. Many are improved versions of the cameras on the Curiosity rover, with a few new additions as well.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th Martian day, or s...

A member of the media interviews mission team member Jessica Samuels inside JPL’s High Bay 1 clean room on Dec. 27, 2019, during Mars 2020 media day.

With its heat shield facing the planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover begins its descent through the Martian atmosphere in this illustration. Hundreds of critical events must execute perfectly and exac...

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter hovers and rotates over Jezero Crater during its second experimental flight test on April 22, 2021. The footage was captured by the Mastcam-Z imager, a pair of zoom...

Members of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter team in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory prepare to receive the data downlink showing whether the helicopter completed...

The descent stage holding NASA’s Perseverance rover can be seen falling thorough the Martian atmosphere, its parachute trailing behind, in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021by the HiRISE camera aboa...

The helicopter was tested on a stand while the cruise stage was tested on the rotation fixture.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter can be seen hovering during its third flight on April 25, 2021, as seen by the left Navigation Camera aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

Madrid’s radio antennas will take the lead in receiving telemetry from the Mars Relay Network during Perseverance’s entry, descent and landing.

This sequence of images – taken on May 22, 2021, by the navigation camera aboard NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – depicts the last 29 seconds of the rotorcraft’s sixth flight.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard is seen illuminated by spotlights on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41, Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at C...

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station undergoes a Wet Dress Rehearsal in preparation for the launch of NASA's Mars 2020 mission with the Perseverance r...

This drill is a duplicate of the one aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. It was used in a test campaign to learn how crumbly rocks respond to the drill. 

This graphic shows the general activities the team behind NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter hopes to accomplish on a given test flight on the Red Planet.

Members of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover team watch in Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successful...