After a more than 7-month journey through deep space, NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars on February 18, 2021.
Perseverance is designed to explore the Red Planet and send data about its discoveries back to scientists on Earth. The rover will begin by surveying its landing site, Jezero Crater, a 28-mile wide crater that scientists believe was once flooded with water, and search for potential signs of past life while collecting and storing rock and soil samples for future NASA missions.
The rover is about the size of a car and will carry Ingenuity, a helicopter that is designed to test the first powered, controlled flight on Mars. Perseverance is the most sophisticated rover NASA has ever designed and will carry two microphones to capture and transmit sounds from the Red Planet for the first time. The Mars 2020 mission is planned to last for at least one Martian year, which is the equivalent of 687 days on Earth.