NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars

Context

NASA’s Perseverance rover is expected to land at the Jezero Crater on the Red Planet, after which it will resume work to look for signs of past life.

NASA’s Mars Perseverance

• The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program.
• It is a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet.

Objectives

• The mission addresses-
  • high-priority science goals for Mars exploration
  • key questions about the potential for life on Mars
  • searching for signs of past microbial life itself
  • testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere
  • characterizing weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions
  • improving landing techniques
    

Other missions to Mars

• UAE’s Al Amal (Hope)–the Arab world’s first such mission.
• China also launched a Tianwen -1 Mars mission.