NASA to Launch Mars Rover in 2020

The Mars 2020 rover undergoes an "eye" exam after several cameras were installed. The rover carries everything from wide-angle landscape cameras to narrow-angle high-resolution zoom lens cameras. T...

This image taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover on Aug. 6, shows that sample collection tube No. 233 is empty. It is one of the pieces of data sent to Earth by Perseverance showing that the rover did...

Flight Director Matt Smith studies the data during the second post-launch trajectory correction maneuver during Perseverance’s cruise to Mars.

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

The heat shield (left) and back shell (right) that comprise the aeroshell for NASA's Mars 2020 mission are depicted in this image.

This animation shows NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover collecting a rock sample from an outcrop the science team calls “Berea” using a coring bit on the end of its robotic arm. The images were taken b...

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory participate in a training exercise in February 2020. They reviewed images and data sent by a field team in the Nevada desert, discussing where to send...

This annotated image was taken during the landing of the Perseverance rover on Feb. 18, 2021. Using binary code, two messages were encoded in the parachute: DARE MIGHTY THINGS and the GPS coordinat...

The upper swashplate of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter controls the pitch of the upper rotor blades as they rotate and is critical to stable, controlled flight. The swashplate is driven by three ...

The Mars 2020 navigation team celebrates Perseverance’s nominal, or successful, trajectory correction maneuver in the Mission Support Area at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

A seven-person field team served as a simulated rover, carrying cameras and science instruments to the Nevada desert. Meanwhile, mission scientists at institutions like  NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labor...

This artist's concept shows a close-up of NASA's Mars 2020 rover studying an outcrop. 

NASA has been exploring Mars since the 1960s, pushing the frontier of innovation to get to the red planet and discover its secrets. 

An altimeter chart shows data from the first flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which occurred on April 19, 2021.

This illustration shows NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover on the surface of the Red Planet. 

Perseverance relies on left and right navigation cameras. The view seen here combines the perspective of two cameras rover during the rover’s first drive using AutoNav, it’s auto-navigation function.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took these images on its fourth flight, on April 30, 2021, using its navigation camera. The camera, which tracks surface features below the helicopter, takes images...

This is the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing on Feb. 18, 2021. 

Students decide what they want to learn from a robotic mission to Mars and what tools they will put on their robot to accomplish their goals.

This illustration shows NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover on the surface of the Red Planet.

Taken on March 5, 2021, this color-calibrated image from a Navigation Camera aboard NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover shows tracks from the rover’s first drive (darker marks in the foreground) an...

Meet two of the Martian samples that have been collected and are awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. As of late June 2023, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has collec...

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is using its self-driving capabilities as it treks across Jezero Crater seeking signs of ancient life and gathering rock and soil samples for planned return to Earth. 

The Mars 2020 rover undergoes processing inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 13, 2020.

Perseverance rover Project Manager, Jennifer Trosper, led team members in applause in a control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on April 5, 2022.