Mission Timeline

NASA’s Perseverance rover collected rock samples for possible return to Earth in the future from two locations seen in this image of Mars’ Jezero Crater: “Wildcat Ridge” (lower left) and “Skinner R...

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...

Visible both in the inset photograph on the upper left and near the center of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover in this illustration is the palm-size dome called the Laser Retroreflector Array (LaRA)....

Since landing on the Red Planet, NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has been hard at work analyzing rocks and soil on the floor of Jezero Crater with the SuperCam instrument. 

NASA’s Perseverance rover is well into its second science campaign, analyzing the composition of rocks and collecting rock samples in an area long considered by scientists to be a top prospect for ...

This color-enhanced image of the “Castell Henllys” region in Jezero Crater was taken by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during the rotorcraft’s 48th flight on March 21, 2023, the 741st Martian day...

The completed spacecraft that will carry the Mars 2020 rover to the Red Planet, next year hangs suspended by cables inside the Space Simulator Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasade...

This video from NASA’s Perseverance rover shows increasingly close views of an abraded rock at “Wildcat Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater, an area scientists consider one of the best places to search f...

Will Allen with engineering models of the (clockwise from bottom) Sojourner rover, a Mars Exploration Rover, and Curiosity in JPL's Mars Yard in the early 2000s.

Technicians working Mars 2020’s System’s Test 1 approach their workstation in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover carries two commercial-grade microphones, including this one on its chassis.

The Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this view of the rover’s deck on Feb. 20, 2021. This view provides a good look at PIXL, one of the instruments on ...

This diagram, superimposed on a photo of Martian landscape, illustrates a concept called "adaptive caching," which is in development for NASA's 2020 Mars rover mission.

While NASA's Mars rover Perseverance travels through space toward the Red Planet, its nearly identical rover twin is hard at work on Earth.

Mars 2020 Lift Activities in Payload Hazardous Serviceing Facility (PHSF) at the Kennedy Space Center.

This time-lapse video, taken on Oct. 8, 2019, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, captures the first time the Mars 2020 rover carries its full weight on its legs and wheels.

The full-scale engineering model of NASA's Perseverance rover raises its "head," or remote sensing mast, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Technicians install a Mastcam-Z high-definition camera in the remote sensing mast that will later go on NASA's Mars 2020 rover.

An engineering model of SHERLOC, one the instruments onboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Located on the end of the rover's robotic arm, SHERLOC will help determine which samples to take so that...

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to take this image of the location where three of its 10 sample tubes will be deposited.

The Mars Helicopter Base Station, seen here as the upper, gold-colored box near the back of NASA’s Perseverance rover, stores and routes communications between NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and ...

Whenever NASA's Mars Perseverance rover sends back new images, members of the public can view and "like" their favorites on the mission's website. Here are the top "Images of the Week" for 2021.

Collecting samples from Mars and bringing them back to Earth is a historic undertaking that starts with the launch of NASA's Mars 2020 rover. 

A prototype of the Lander Vision System for NASA's Mars 2020 mission was tested in this Dec. 9, 2014, flight of a Masten Space Systems "Xombie" vehicle at Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

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...