The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landed on Mars February 18th 2021. It is the next step in the exploration of Mars following the highly successful Curiosity rover which landed on Mars in 2011. The rover carries more sophisticated, new and upgraded hardware, instruments, and technology to conduct geological assessments of the rover’s landing site, determine the potential habitability of the environment, and directly search for signs of ancient Martian life.
The Perseverance rover carried with it a technology demonstration, the Ingenuity helicopter, which demonstrated the first successful controlled powered flight on another planet.
The rover has a drill to collect core samples of Martian rock and soil, then store them in sealed tubes for pickup by a future mission that would ferry them back to Earth for detailed analysis. Perseverance will also test technologies to help pave the way for future human exploration of Mars. There are several ways that the mission helps pave the way for future human expeditions to Mars and demonstrates technologies that may be used in those endeavors. These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying other resources (such as subsurface water), improving landing techniques, and characterizing weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.
JPL Robotics engineers are contributing to this project in a number of areas, similar to other Mars Rover Projects (Pathfinder, MER Spirit and Opportunity, MSL Curiosity). Specific areas with significant involvement are linked below.
For more details on all aspects of the Mars 2020 mission, visit the Mars 2020 Project website.