NASA to Launch Mars Rover in 2020

The Mars 2020 rover is offloaded from a C-17 aircraft at the Launch and Landing Facility, formerly known as the Shuttle Landing Facility, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 12, 2020. 

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...

A test model of the RIMFAX instrument – aboard the trailer behind the snow mobile – undergoes field testing in Svalbard, Norway.

Engineer Mallory Lefland experienced the tension and relief shared by the team on Mars 2020 Perseverance landing day, on Feb. 18, 2021.

On Feb. 18, 2021, the world watched live as NASA’s Mars 2020 mission team attempted the most daring part of its mission: landing the Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars.

Members of JPL's assembly, test and launch operations team for NASA's Perseverance mission show appreciation for their newly named rover. The image was taken on March 4, 2020, at a payload processi...

Photograph showing the prototype RIMFAX antenna attached to a snowmobile during tests in Svalbard, Norway.

Team members of NASA’s next Mars mission applaud as mission manager Jennifer Trosper unveils a nameplate with "Perseverance" laser-etched into its surface. The image was taken at the agency’s Jet P...

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s carbon fiber blades can be seen in this video taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on April 8, 2021, the 48th Martian day, or sol,...

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its WATSON camera took take eight images – combined into this composite image – of a rock abraded by a tool on the rover’s robotic arm. The images were taken on ...

The High Bay 1 clean room within the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at JPL is seen in this image taken on Nov. 12, 2019. The Mars 2020 rover is visible just above center. 

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.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard is seen as it is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 4...

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

Vaneeza Rupani (inset), a junior at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama, came up with the name Ingenuity for NASA's Mars Helicopter (an artist's impression of which is seen here) an...

Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, imaged its calibration targets for the first time on Feb. 20, 2021, the second Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance’s mission...

This image shows a close-up view of the rock target named “Máaz” from the SuperCam instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. It was taken by SuperCam’s Remote Micro-Imager (RMI). “Máaz” means M...

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."

This map of the Red Planet shows Jezero Crater, where NASA's Mars 2020 rover is scheduled to land in February 2021. Also included are the locations where all of NASA's other successful Mars mission...

The Mars Perseverance rover’s SuperCam instrument team uses COCPIT at the French Operations Center for Science and Exploration at the National Center for Space Studies field center in Toulouse, Fra...

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...

The electricity for NASA's Mars 2020 rover is provided by a power system called a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or MMRTG.

This series of images from a navigation camera aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover shows a gust of wind sweeping dust across the Martian plain beyond the rover’s tracks on June 18, 2021 (the 117th sol...

This computer simulation shows NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover as it carried out its first drive using its auto-navigation feature, which allows it to avoid rocks and other hazards without input fro...

Sample radargram of a glacier in Svalbard obtained with the HUBRA radar instrument, a precursor of RIMFAX built by the FFI team.