Mars 2020 Mission: The Perseverance Rover Landing
Mars 2020 Mission
February 17, 2021
The excitement of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars can be witnessed on NASA TV starting at 11:15 PST on February 18, 2021.
Landing zone for Mars 2020 mission (Credit: Ryan Anderson, USGS).
The time is finally here!
When you’re planning to explore someplace new, it’s always a good idea to bring a map so you can avoid dangerous terrain. This is true whether you’re heading out for a hike on Earth or you’re landing a rover on Mars. In either case, the USGS has you covered.
After nearly seven months of travel through space, NASA’s Perseverance rover will touch down on Mars on Thursday, February 18. The mission’s goals are to search for evidence of past life and habitable environments in Jezero crater and collect and store samples that, for the first time in history, could be returned to Earth by a future mission.