• Mars 2020

• Mars 2020

• Mars 2020 Documents

• JPL Mars 2020 Home Page
• Mars 2020 Mission Overview
• Solar System Exploration
• NSSDCA

• Science Summary

• The Rover
• All Instruments

• Images from Mars 2020

Mars 2020

  The Mars 2020 mission with its Perseverance rover is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The Mars 2020 mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key Astrobiology questions about the potential for life on Mars.
  The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will investigate a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been favorable for microbial life, probing the Martian rocks for evidence of past life. Throughout its investigation, it will collect samples of soil and rock, and cache them on the surface for potential return to Earth by a future mission.
  Perseverance will carry an entirely new subsystem to collect and prepare Martian rocks and soil samples that includes a coring drill on its arm and a rack of sample tubes. About 30 of these sample tubes will be deposited at select locations for return on a potential future sample-retrieval mission. In laboratories on Earth, specimens from Mars could be analyzed for evidence of past life on Mars and possible health hazards for future human missions.
  Two science instruments mounted on the rover's robotic arm will be used to search for signs of past life and determine where to collect samples by analyzing the chemical, mineral, physical and organic characteristics of Martian rocks. On the rover's mast, two science instruments will provide high-resolution imaging and three types of spectroscopy for characterizing rocks and soil from a distance, also helping to determine which rock targets to explore up close.
  The mission will spend at least one Mars year (two Earth years) exploring the landing site region. The Mars 2020/Perseverance rover has five science objectives:

• explore a geologically diverse landing site
• assess ancient habitability
• seek signs of ancient life, particularly in special rocks known to preserve signs of life over time
• gather rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth by a future NASA mission
• demonstrate technology for future robotic and human exploration




Mars 2020 Instruments and Cameras

• Mastcam-Z - Mast Zoom Camera
• MEDA - Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer
• MOXIE - Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment
• PIXL - Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry
• RIMFAX - Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment
• SHERLOC - Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence         for Organics and Chemicals
• SuperCam

The Cartography and Imaging Sciences Node archives all Mars 2020 image 'operations data'.