By: - The Mars Perseverance Rover was launched from Cape Canaveral Florida on July 30, 2020.
- The Mars Perseverance Rover touched down on the Jezero Crater on February 18th, 2021.
- The Mission of the Mars Perseverance Rover is to seek signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth.
- The planned duration of the Mars Perseverance Rover is 1 Martian Year (~687 Earth Days)
- Alexander Mather, 7th Grader from Virginia, won the contest to naming the rover from among more than 28,000 entries
- The Mars Perseverance Rover is about the same size as a car and has similar dimensions to the Curiosity Rover: 10 feet long (not including the arm), 9 feet wide, and 7 feet tall (about 3 meters long, 2.7 meters wide, and 2.2 meters tall).
- The Mars Perseverance Rover weighs 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms), Perseverance is about 278 pounds (126 kilograms) heavier than Curiosity.
- The Mars Perseverance Rover is nuclear powered: Perseverance’s baseline power system is a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. It uses the heat from the natural decay of plutonium-238 to generate electricity.
- The Mars Perseverance Rover will test new technology for future robotic and human missions. Primary among these new technologies is an autopilot system for avoiding hazards called Terrain Relative Navigation and a set of sensors for gathering data during the landing (Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation 2, or MEDLI2). A new autonomous navigation system will allow the rover to drive faster in challenging terrain.
- The Perseverance Rover includes the Mars Helicopter which is a small, autonomous aircraft that will be carried to the surface on the Red Planet attached to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover. Its mission is experimental in nature and completely independent of the Mars 2020 science mission.
Source: mars.Nasa.Gov