Mars 2020 (Perseverance)

Mars 2020 (Perseverance)
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Name	Perseverance
Mission type	Mars rover
Operator	NASA
Mission duration	Primary: 1 Mars year (≈687 Earth days)
Launch date	30 July 2020
Launch vehicle	Atlas V 541
Launch site	Cape Canaveral Space Force Station SLC-41
Landing date	18 February 2021
Landing site	Jezero Crater, Mars
Mass	1,025 kg (rover)
Power	Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG)

Mars 2020 (Perseverance)

Perseverance is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission that delivered a mobile rover to the surface of Mars to search for signs of past life, collect samples for future return, and demonstrate technologies for human exploration. Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and built by JPL teams, the mission continues a lineage of planetary exploration that includes Viking program, Mars Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity, and Curiosity.

Mission overview

The mission was developed under NASA's Mars Exploration Program with goals aligned to recommendations from the Decadal Survey and coordination with international partners such as the European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, and Centre National d'Études Spatiales. Perseverance's objectives include astrobiology investigations informed by prior studies like those of Opportunity (rover), Curiosity (rover), and orbital reconnaissance from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey (orbiting spacecraft). The project supports strategic initiatives such as the proposed Mars Sample Return campaign and contributes to technology demonstrations relevant to Artemis program objectives and deep-space human exploration advocated by NASA Administrator leadership.

Spacecraft and instruments

Perseverance's chassis and systems build on the Curiosity design with upgraded avionics and new science payloads developed by institutions including California Institute of Technology, Lockheed Martin, Malin Space Science Systems, University of Arizona, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Key instruments include the SHERLOC spectrometer (a collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and JPL), the PIXL X-ray fluorescence instrument from Southwest Research Institute, the SuperCam laser instrument developed with contributions from Centre National d'Études Spatiales and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Mastcam-Z stereo camera system produced by Arizona State University. Perseverance carries the first planetary Mars Helicopter named Ingenuity developed by AeroVironment and JPL, an MMRTG power source provided through partnerships with Department of Energy, and a sample caching system designed with input from European Space Agency engineers.

Launch and cruise

Perseverance launched on an Atlas V 541 rocket built by United Launch Alliance from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a favorable Earth–Mars transfer window in July 2020, following mission planning coordinated with NASA Launch Services Program and trajectory analyses by JPL navigation teams. The cruise phase included spacecraft health checks, instrument commissioning, and coordination with relay assets such as Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and Maven (spacecraft) for communications relay planning, while international facilities like Deep Space Network stations in Goldstone, Madrid, and Canberra provided tracking and telemetry support.

Entry, descent, and landing

Perseverance's entry, descent, and landing sequence—executed by teams at JPL and informed by lessons from Viking 1, Mars Pathfinder, Phoenix (spacecraft), and Curiosity—used a heat shield, supersonic parachute, descent stage, and sky crane maneuver to land in Jezero Crater, a site selected by an international science team including members from Smithsonian Institution, University of California, Berkeley, and Brown University. The landing activated international scientific community responses from institutions such as NASA Headquarters and research groups at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Institution for Science.

Surface operations and science objectives

Surface operations are planned and executed through teams at JPL and science investigators at institutions including University of Washington, University of Colorado Boulder, Cornell University, and University of Oxford. Objectives include characterizing the geology and climate history of Jezero Crater, searching for biosignatures informed by analog studies at Yellowstone National Park and Atacama Desert field campaigns by teams from Smithsonian Institution and NASA Ames Research Center, and studying surface processes relevant to future human missions advocated by NASA Artemis planners. Instruments such as Mastcam-Z, SuperCam, SHERLOC, and PIXL provide complementary datasets that link to orbital context from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE and CTX imagers.

Sample caching and Mars Sample Return preparations

A primary innovation is Perseverance's sample-caching system—designed in partnership with organizations including NASA and European Space Agency—to acquire sealed core samples in titanium tubes for a proposed Mars Sample Return campaign coordinated with ESA and enabled by potential missions from industry partners like SpaceX and initiatives supported by NASA Headquarters. Sample selection follows protocols influenced by asteroid sample-return missions such as OSIRIS-REx and lunar sample heritage from Apollo program archived by Smithsonian Institution curators, with curation planning involving Johnson Space Center and international curation facilities. The cached samples are intended to be retrieved by future fetch and return architecture concepts under study by ESA and NASA for definitive laboratory analysis on Earth.

Category:Missions to Mars Category:NASA robotic spacecraft