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NASA Begins Building Next Mars Rover Mission

November 30, 2017

In just a couple of years, NASA’s newest rover will be flying to Mars. The Mars 2020 mission will use the next generation of science and landing technology to collect rock samples for possible return by a future mission.

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Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech

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A white, square unit with rows of small color and grayscale dots attached to the top of the Perseverance rover.
SuperCam Calibration Target in Place
NASA's Mars 2020 Project will re-use the basic engineering of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity to send a different rover to Mars, with new objectives and instruments. This view depicts the ...
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NASA's Mars 2020 Project will re-use the basic engineering of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity to send a different rover to Mars, with new objectives and instruments. This view depicts the top of the 2020 rover's mast.
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Engineer Mallory Lefland experienced the tension and relief shared by the team on Mars 2020 Perseverance landing day, on Feb. 18, 2021.
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Mallory Lefland waiting for news from Mars
Excitement and Suspense on Landing Day
Members of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team stand next to the Collier Trophy during the Robert J. Collier Dinner in Washington on June 9, 2022.
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This image shows members of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team standing next to the NAA Collier Trophy on June 9, 2022.
Ingenuity Team With Collier Trophy
Meet a Martian sample that has been collected and is awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.
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Meet two of the Martian samples that have been collected and are awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.
Meet the Mars Samples: Roubion (Sample 1)
This 3D view of an area the Mars Perseverance rover team calls “Faillefeu” was created from data collected by NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 13th flight at Mars on Sept. 4, 2021.
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This 3D view of an area the Mars Perseverance rover team calls “Faillefeu” was created from data collected by NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 13th flight at Mars on Sept. 4, 2021.
Mars Mound From Ingenuity Helicopter's Perspective in 3D
An engineering model of SHERLOC, one the instruments onboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Located on the end of the rover's robotic arm, SHERLOC will help determine which samples to take so that...
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An engineering model of SHERLOC, one the instruments onboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover.
Mars 2020's SHERLOC Instrument
This illustration depicts the exterior of a sample tube being carried aboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.
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This illustration depicts the exterior of a sample tube being carried aboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.
Anatomy of a Sample Tube
Composed of multiple images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, this mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores and abraded a circular patch to i...
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This mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores and abraded a circular patch to investigate the rock’s composition.
Sample Collection and Rock Analysis at 'Wildcat Ridge'
SkyCam is a sky-facing camera aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. As part of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), the rover's set of weather instruments, SkyCam will take images and ...
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SkyCam is a sky-facing camera aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. As part of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), the rover's set of weather instruments, SkyCam will take images and video of clouds passing in the Martian sky.
Perseverance Rover's SkyCam
This image, taken by the Mastcam-Z camera aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on Jan. 20, 2022, shows the rover successfully expelled the remaining large fragments of cored rock from a sample tub...
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This image, taken by the Mastcam-Z camera aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on Jan. 20, 2022, shows the rover successfully expelled the remaining large fragments of cored rock from a sample tube held in its drill.
Perseverance's Sample Tube Looks Clean
Engineers install the SuperCam instrument on Mars 2020's rover. This image was taken on June 25, 2019, in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
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Engineers install the SuperCam instrument on Mars 2020's rover. This image was taken on June 25, 2019, in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
Installing SuperCam on the Mars 2020 Rover
The Mars 2020 spacecraft’s heat shield falls away as the aeroshell descends to Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.
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Mars 2020 spacecraft’s heat shield falling away
MEDLI2 Visible on Mars 2020 Heat Shield
During a Dec. 6, 2022 webinar, students who have overcome academic challenges were honored with personal messages from the Perseverance rover on Mars.
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Image shows two large screens, one with the You've Got Perseverance logo and a multi-colored illustration of the Perseverance rover on a turquoise background, the other with a video webinar screen showing student honorees in rows of boxes, as they appear on the screen
NASA Honors December 2022 You've Got Perseverance Awardees
Meet two of the Martian samples that have been collected and are awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.
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Meet two of the Martian samples that have been collected and are awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.
Meet the Mars Samples: Hazeltop and Bearwallow (Samples 12 and 13)
This colorful illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance Rover on Mars, where it landed in February 2021.
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This colorful illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance Rover on Mars, where it landed in February 2021.
'You've Got Perseverance!' Illustration
This animation shows NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover collecting a rock sample from an outcrop the science team calls “Berea” using a coring bit on the end of its robotic arm. The images were taken b...
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This animation shows NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover collecting a rock sample from an outcrop the science team calls “Berea” using a coring bit on the end of its robotic arm. The images were taken by one of the rover’s front hazard cameras.
Perseverance Cores 'Berea'
This image shows part of the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough” geologic unit where Perseverance rover will hunt for a suitable first sample target.
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This image shows part of the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough” geologic unit where Perseverance rover will hunt for a suitable first sample target.
An Expanse for Perseverance to Explore
The Perseverance rover successfully collected its first Martian core samples that NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency) plan to return to Earth for further study.
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NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Collects First Core Samples & Early Science (Media Briefing)
In time-lapse video bunny-suited engineers remove the inner layer of protective foil on NASA's Mars 2020 rover after it was moved to a different building at JPL for testing.
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In time-lapse video bunny-suited engineers remove the inner layer of protective foil on NASA's Mars 2020 rover after it was moved to a different building at JPL for testing.
Mars 2020 Unwrapped and Ready for Testing
NASA’s Perseverance rover took these zoomed-in images of a layered outcrop (just below center of   image) nicknamed “Artuby” on June 17, 2021 (the 116th sol, or Martian Day, of its mission), from a...
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NASA’s Perseverance rover took these zoomed-in images of a layered outcrop (just below center of image) nicknamed “Artuby” on June 17, 2021 (the 116th sol, or Martian Day, of its mission), from a little more than a third of a mile (615 meters) away.
SuperCam Image of 'Artuby'
Engineers and technicians working on the Mars 2020 spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, look on as a crane lifts the rocket-powered descent stage away from the ro...
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Engineers and technicians working on the Mars 2020 spacecraft look on as a crane lifts the rocket-powered descent stage away from the rover after a test.
NASA Mars 2020 Rover Separation Test
On Aug. 27, 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover captured this image of the science-instrument-laden turret at the end of its robotic arm getting close to the rock nicknamed "Rochette."
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This is a colored image of the Perseverance rover capturing the science-instrument-laden turret at the end of its robotic arm getting close to the rock nicknamed "Rochette." The sandy surface of Mars and hills can be seen in the background of this image.
Perseverance Gets to Know 'Rochette'
This cartoon depicts NASA's next Mars rover, which launches in 2020.
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This cartoon depicts NASA's next Mars rover, which launches in 2020.
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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired this image in the northwest portion of a region known as “Séítah” using its high-resolution color camera during its 20th flight on Feb. 25, 2022.
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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired this image in the northwest portion of a region known as “Séítah” using its high-resolution color camera during its 20th flight on Feb. 25, 2022.
Ingenuity Flight 20

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