Proposed 2020 Mars Rover Science Goals

When NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover starts its quest for compelling Martian rocks, it will have quite the to-do list: Locate, drill, collect, stash, and so much more

This image shows the rock core from “Berea” inside inside the drill of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Each core the rover takes is about the size of a piece of classroom chalk: 0.5 inches (13 mill...

This animation shows the data collected on a Mars 2020 sample tube using a computerized tomography (CT) scanner. Engineers working on the sample tubes used the 3D imagery to better understand the t...

Vandi Verma, an engineer who now works with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, is seen here working as a driver for the Curiosity rover. The special 3D glasses she’s wearing are still used by rover dr...

About 1000 Viking Orbiter red- and violet-filter images have been processed to provide global color coverage of Mars at a scale of 1 km/pixel.

This pair of images shows two cylinders of rock the size of classroom chalk inside the drill of NASA’s Perseverance rover from an outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater. The image of...

An artist's concept of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flying through the Red Planet's skies.

While NASA's Mars rover Perseverance travels through space toward the Red Planet, its nearly identical rover twin is hard at work on Earth.

The first flight of an advanced supersonic parachute system for Mars 2020. The test took place on Oct. 4, 2017 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Eleven students, along with parents, teachers, and classmates, met virtually with NASA Mars Perseverance team members to celebrate the students’ participation in the “You’ve Got Perseverance” campa...

Planetary protection engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California swab engineering models of the the tubes that will store Martian rock and sediment samples as part of NASA’...

NASA's spacecraft on Mars are all affected by the winds of the Red Planet, which can produce a tiny dust devil or a global dust storm. 

NASA's Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will be the first aircraft to fly in a controlled way on another planet. 

​​The shipping container carrying NASA's Mars 2020 rover is readied for loading aboard an Air Force C-17 transport plane at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, on Feb. 11, 2020.

This illustration depicts five major components of the Mars 2020 spacecraft. Top to bottom: cruise stage, backshell, descent stage, Perseverance rover and heat shield.

Two members of the field team set up cameras as part of the simulated rover operation. The images they provided were intended to stand in for what a rover's instruments might send back from Mars. 

Two name plates mounted on the Mars Perseverance rover’s robotic arm are visible in this composite image, made from photos taken by the rover’s left Navcam on Sol 12 of its mission (March 2, 2021).

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover’s mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on ...

This GIF shows NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover collecting two samples of regolith – broken rock and dust – with a regolith sampling bit on the end of its robotic arm. The samples were collected on D...

The photo was taken on March 16, 2020 in a cleanroom at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center during final preparation for launch.

The cone-shaped back shell for NASA's Perseverance rover mission is shown in this April 29, 2020, image from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This image taken by NASA's Perseverance rover on Aug. 6, 2021, shows the hole drilled in a Martian rock in preparation for the rover's first attempt to collect a sample. It was taken by one of the ...

Download a PDF of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Launch Press Kit.

This student was one of 11 honored by Perseverance rover team members for overcoming academic challenges, during a live "You've Got Perseverance" webinar on April 4, 2023, from the rover's mission ...

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster for NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is lifted up in the Vertical Integration Facility at Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in F...