Mission Timeline

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission's disk-shaped cruise stage sits atop the back shell, which contains the powered descent stage and Perseverance rover. The brass-colored heat shield below is...

In this illustration, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter stands on the Red Planet's surface as NASA's Perseverance rover (partially visible on the left) rolls away

Wiping down hardware is part of the strategy to limit the number of Earth microbes going to the Red Planet for NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance mission. 

For the first time, a spacecraft on another planet has recorded the sounds of a separate spacecraft. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its SuperCam microphone to listen to the Ingenuity helicopte...

A device similar to this one would potentially be placed on the Mars 2020 rover to cache collected rock core samples for a future potential return to Earth.

The drill hole from Perseverance's second sample-collection attempt can be seen, in this composite of two images taken on Sept. 1, by one of the rover’s navigation cameras. 

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 3D view of geologic feature the Mars Perseverance rover team calls “Raised Ridges” was generated from data collected by Ingenuity during its 10th flight at Mars, on July 24, 2021.

Pebble-sized debris can be seen in the bit carousel of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover in this Jan. 7, 2022, image.

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...

A crane is attached to the second of four solid rocket boosters for the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket to lift it into the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cap...

This image taken on Nov. 16, 2019, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, captures the port side of NASA's Perseverance rover.

This image was taken by the Lander Vision System Camera (LCAM) of NASA’s Perseverance rover as the rover descended through the Martian atmosphere on Feb. 18, 2021. The camera served as part of the ...

Download a PDF of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Poster.

Andrea Connell, software engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, works with the Component-based Campaign Planning, Implementation, and Tactical software tool, or COCPIT...

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

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s navigation camera captures the helicopter’s shadow on the surface of Jezero Crater during rotorcraft’s second experimental test flight on April 22, 2021.

In this photo taken on Oct. 1, 2019, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (between left and center rover wheels) have just completed a multiweek evaluation under Mars-...

This artwork is etched onto a titanium plate mounted on the upper section of the Mars Perseverance rover’s 7-foot robotic arm. Mars 2020 is the official name of the mission, named for its launch ye...

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021.

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.

Michael Tuite and Rachel Kronyak of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory served as part of the desert field team, sending images and data for review by scientists who will work with NASA's Perseverance...

NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission will collect the first samples from another planet (the red one) for return to Earth by subsequent missions.

NASA's Perseverance rover undergoes a 10-day test in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility's High Bay 1 at JPL. The image was taken on Nov. 16, 2019.

An illustration of NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter flying on Mars.