MARS 2020

This image was captured while NASA’s Perseverance rover drove on Mars for the first time on March 4, 2021. (Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech)NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is now wheeling around on the red planet and stretching its robotic limbs, the rover’s team said in the most recent update just two weeks after landing. Already the space agency released the first ever sound recorded on Mars taken by Percy and the first photos taken from the rover’s jetpack as it landed. Since then there have been many more firsts for the six-wheeled robot.. Two weeks into the mission, Percy has already sent back about 7,000 images. “Butler’s protagonists embodies determination and inventiveness, making her a perfect fit for the Perseverance rover mission, and its theme of overcoming challenges.”The spot where @NASAPersevere began its journey on Mars now bears the name “Octavia E. Butler Landing."

Following the touchdown on Mars Thursday NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover team are already getting back images taken during the entry, descent and landing also known as “seven minutes of terror” that happened about 300 million miles away from Earth. [NASA is expected to share more images, including video the Mars landing during a news briefing at 2 p.m. Monday. This image captured by a spacecraft shows NASA's Perseverance rover midair, floating over Mars while hanging from its parachute during the final moments before landing. The first color image from NASA's Perseverance rover taken right after landing on Mars Feb. 18, 2021. The rover is equipped with microphones designed to capture the landing and then the sounds on the ground from Mars.

Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week. AdPerseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars, every one of them from the U.S. Two older NASA landers are still humming along on Mars: 2012′s Curiosity rover and 2018′s InSight. NASA said that the descent was flawless and that the rover came down in a “parking lot" — a relatively flat spot amid hazardous rocks. Hours after the landing, Matt Wallace, NASA deputy project manager, reported that the spacecraft was in great shape.

NASA's Perseverance rover is ready to land on Mars, the agency confirmed today (Feb. 16). "The spacecraft is focused, the team is focused and we are all ready to go for landing," Trosper added. Related: How to watch NASA's Perseverance rover land on MarsPerseverance rover's Mars landing: Everything you need to knowA diagram shows the steps in Perseverance's entry, descent and landing procedure. Step-by-step guide: How Perseverance rover will land on MarsAgency personnel are eagerly anticipating getting through these "seven minutes of terror" and safely landing the spacecraft. "I'm feeling great," Trosper, who has worked on all five of NASA's rover missions, told Space.com about the upcoming landing.

Scientists and engineers discuss planetary protection in two directions: keeping other destinations free of meaningful Earth contamination and keeping our planet safe from potentially dangerous extraterrestrial materials. Developing the strategy fell — and implementing it will fall — to the Planetary Protection Interagency Working Group established in July, which brings together nearly 20 federal agencies, of which NASA is only one. Whether crewed or robotic missions, the government wants to prepare for an expected boom in commercial space launches beyond Earth orbit. The new plan calls for surveying relevant private-sector representatives about planetary protection within three months and creating guidelines for government oversight of commercial projects within six months. The working group's other projects require developing frameworks for evaluating or addressing a handful of other aspects of planetary protection, including crewed missions and sample return.

More than halfway to the red planet after launching from Florida in July NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance is coming in hot -- on the microphone. Perseverance, also known as Mars 2020, launched from Cape Canaveral on a ULA Altas V rocket this July. The robot may look like NASA’s well-known rover, Curiosity, currently roving around on Mars but this bot has a whole new suite of instruments, cameras and two microphones on board. One mic is designed to listen to the pew-pew sounds from the rover’s laser on the SuperCam instrument, another will listen to the Mars atmosphere entry, descent down to the surface and touchdown. It will be a surprise come landing day what the mic picks up because it wasn’t originally designed for space travel.

NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover reached its halfway point — 146.3 million miles (235.4 million kilometers) — on its journey to the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater on Oct. 27, 2020, at 4:40 EDT (2040 GMT). NASA's next Mars rover is halfway to its otherworldly destination. The Mars 2020 rover Perseverance , which launched on July 30, has now traveled 146 million miles (235 million kilometers) in deep space — half of the total required to reach the Red Planet, mission team members announced Tuesday (Oct. 27). Related: NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission in photosThe 28-mile-wide (45 km) Jezero, where Perseverance will touch down on Feb. 18, hosted a lake and a river delta in the ancient past. "In straight-line distance, Earth is 26.6 million miles [42.7 million km] behind Perseverance and Mars is 17.9 million miles [28.8 million km] in front," Kangas said.

The shipping container carrying NASA's Mars 2020 rover is readied for loading aboard an Air Force C-17 transport plane at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, on Feb. 11, 2020. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)NASA's newest Mars rover has just left the nest. "Our rover has left the only home it has ever known," John McNamee, NASA's Mars 2020 project manager, said in a statement. Related: How NASA's Mars 2020 rover will work (infographic)Two U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo planes delivered the rover to Kennedy Space Center, along with the spacecraft's cruise stage, descent stage and Mars Helicopter, a drone that will hitch a ride to the Red Planet on the Mars 2020 rover. Mars 2020 Assembly, Test and Launch Operations Manager David Gruel watches as members of his team loaded NASA's next Mars rover onto an Air Force C-17 at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, on Feb. 11, 2020.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – NASA’s next Mars rover traveled from California to Kennedy Space Center Wednesday in preparation for a July launch to the red planet. The rover’s heat shield and backshell arrived at the space center in January, according to NASA. Ahead of the launch, NASA plans to officially name the roving robot with the help of K-12 students. When the rover lands on Mars, it will begin its investigation of the red planet in the Jezero Crater. Mars 2020 will follow in the tracks of its predecessor, NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover.

NASA is asking for the public’s input on what the Mars 2020 rover should be named before it launches from the Space Coast later this year. Here are the names you can vote on:PromiseVisionEndurancePerseveranceClarityCourageTenacityIngenuityFortitudeMore than 189,000 people have already participated in the poll by Wednesday. The rover is set to launch from Cape Canaveral this summer/"Now that's a Mars rover," Mars 2020 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations Manager David Gruel said. Mars 2020, equipped with a suite of science instruments, will be searching for signs of life on Mars in the Jezero Crater. The rover will land on Mars Feb. 18, 2021.

But if scientists discover there was once life -- or there is life -- on the Red Planet, will the public be able to handle such an extraterrestrial concept? The agency's Mars 2020 rover, set to launch next summer, will be the first to collect samples of Martian material to send back to Earth. The Mars 2020 rover, along with the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover, will drill into the Martian crust. The surface of the Red Planet is believed to be radioactive, so if there is life on Mars, it likely lives below ground. Mars 2020 will test oxygen production on the planet and monitor Martian weather to evaluate how potential human colonies could fare on Mars.

NASA's next Mars rover is set to launch next year from Cape Canaveral, hence why it has only been known as Mars 2020 up until this point. U.S. students will participate in the naming process by submitting 150-word essays to name NASA's next Mars rover. NASA sent out an open invitation for the public to send their names to the red planet with the yet to be named rover Mars 2020. "Now that's a Mars rover," Mars 2020 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations Manager David Gruel said. Mars 2020, equipped with a suite of science instruments, will be searching for signs of life on Mars in the Jezero Crater.

PASADENA, Calif. - Before humans make it to Mars, NASA will send a helicopter to scope out the terrain. Engineers attached a helicopter to the Mars 2020 rover ahead of its launch next summer. And if it flies successfully, it'll be the first aircraft to fly on another planet, NASA said. The solar-powered Mars Helicopter will be safely stowed underneath the rover until it lands at the Jezero Crater, where scientists believe water once flowed. The craft will detach from the rover and explore Mars from the air while the rover collects samples on the ground, NASA said.