NASA to Launch Mars Rover in 2020

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.

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

This calibration target for Mars 2020's SHERLOC instrument includes five samples of spacesuit material, the first to ever be flown to the Red Planet. By studying how these samples degrade in the Ma...

The HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to capture this image of NASA’s Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars.

Another view of NASA's Perseverance rover attached to a spin table during a test of its mass properties at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The image was taken on April 7, 2020.

This is the first color image of the Martian surface taken by an aerial vehicle while it was aloft. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured it with its color camera during its second successful flig...

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 retu...

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-...

In the Australian Outback, scientists from NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 mission and their counterparts from the joint European-Russian ExoMars mission visited the oldest convincing evidence for life o...

Perseverance Mars rover guidance and controls operations lead Swati Mohan studied data on monitors in Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, on Thursday, Feb. 1...

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 shows the journey of NASA's Perseverance rover across the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater in the approximately seven months since landing on Feb. 18, 2021.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard is seen on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 after being rolled out of the Vertical Integration Faci...

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...

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.

A 58-foot-tall Black Brant IX sounding rocket launches from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Oct. 4. This was the first test of the Mars 2020 mission's parachute-testing series, the Advanced Super...

Updated with new features, including additional mobility software and the bulk of the sample caching system, the twin of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover arrives at JPL’s Mars Yard garage on Oct. 29,...

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 30. NASA's Eyes on the Solar System tool lets you track the spacecraft in real time as it makes its way to Mars f...

A device with six mechanical legs, the hexapod is a critical part of the PIXL instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. The hexapod allows PIXL to make slow, precise movements to get closer...

Since landing in February 2021, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has sent back hundreds of thousands of images of the Red Planet. After each communication downlink, images go directly to the Persever...

Members from NASA's Mars Helicopter and Mars 2020 teams stand behind the Mars Helicopter.

The Curiosity rover is a big nerd at heart, fitted with a science lab to take in the planet Mars. Get the inside scoop on the mission’s many discoveries and dramas after a decade on the Red Planet.

This illustration shows NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover on the surface of the Red Planet.

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

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter is traveling to Mars attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover and must safely detach to begin the first attempt at powered flight on another planet. Tests done at...