NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance landing: Everything you need to know

February 16, 2021

An artist's illustration of NASA's Mars rover Perseverance landing on the Red Planet using a sky crane similar to that of the Curiosity rover in 2012. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) — An artist’s illustration of NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance landing on the Red Planet using a sky crane similar to that of the Curiosity rover in 2012. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The landing of NASA’s next Mars rover is now just days away.

The car-size Perseverance rover, the centerpiece of NASA’s $2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission, will hunt for signs of ancient life, collect and cache samples for future return to Earth and help demonstrate a variety of new exploration technologies, among other tasks.