Perseverance (rover) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Perseverance
Part of Mars 2020
Self-portrait by Perseverance in September 2021 at Rochette, a rock and the site of the first core samples of the Mars 2020 mission.
Type	Mars rover
Manufacturer	Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Technical details
Dimensions	2.9 m × 2.7 m × 2.2 m (9 ft 6 in × 8 ft 10 in × 7 ft 3 in)
Dry mass	1,025 kilograms (2,260 lb)
Power	MMRTG; 110 watt
Instruments
Cachecam EDLC × 2 Hazcam × 8 Mastcam-Z MEDA Microphones MOXIE Navcam × 2 PIXL RIMFAX SHERLOC SuperCam

The Perseverance rover is a special robot from NASA that has been exploring the planet Mars since February 18, 2021. It is part of the Mars 2020 mission. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and manages this amazing rover. Perseverance launched on July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V rocket. It landed in Jezero Crater, a place chosen because it once had an ancient river delta. Scientists believe this area might hold clues about tiny microbial life that lived there long ago.

The main goals of Perseverance are to search for signs of ancient life, learn about Mars' geology (how the planet is made) and climate, and collect rock and regolith (loose soil) samples. These samples might be brought back to Earth by a future mission. Perseverance also tests new technologies to help future human explorers on Mars. For example, it successfully made oxygen from the thin carbon-dioxide air on Mars!

Perseverance carries seven main science tools, 19 cameras, and two microphones. It also brought along a small helicopter called Ingenuity. In April 2021, Ingenuity made history by performing the first powered flight on another planet. It was supposed to fly only a few times but completed 72 flights before it retired in 2024.

The rover gets its power from a special generator called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Perseverance is expected to work for over ten years. It has sent back amazing high-resolution pictures, drilled into rocks, and stored samples. It has also found rocks in Jezero Crater that might have been good places for ancient microbial life. In July 2024, it found a rock called "Cheyava Falls" with "possible biosignatures," which are signs that life might have existed there. As of January 15, 2026, the rover has been active on Mars for about 1,744 sols (1,792 Earth days).

Exploring Mars: The Perseverance Mission

After the successful landing of the Curiosity rover in 2012, NASA planned another exciting mission to Mars. Scientists wanted to find out if Mars ever had life and to bring samples back to Earth. This led to the creation of the Mars 2020 mission and the Perseverance rover.

Perseverance Science Goals

The Perseverance rover has four main science goals:

• Looking for Habitability: Find places on Mars that could have supported tiny living things (microbes) in the past.
• Seeking Biosignatures: Look for signs of past microbial life in those habitable places, especially in rocks that can preserve these signs over time.
• Caching Samples: Collect rock and soil samples and store them safely. Some are kept inside the rover, and others are left on the Martian surface as a backup. These samples are waiting for a future mission to pick them up and bring them to Earth.
• Preparing for Humans: Test ways to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, which would be very helpful for future human explorers.

Perseverance Exploration Campaigns

Perseverance has explored different areas of Jezero Crater in several campaigns:

• The first campaign, called "Crater Floor," involved driving around the landing site to study rocks and collect the first core sample.
• The second campaign, "Fan Front," explored the base of an ancient river delta.
• Later campaigns, "Upper Fan" and "Margin Unit," continued exploring the delta.
• The fifth campaign, "Northern Rim," which was underway in late 2024, explored the northern edge of Jezero's rim. This area has rocks that were thrown up from deep inside Mars when the crater formed 3.9 billion years ago.

Amazing Discoveries from Perseverance

As of late 2025, Perseverance has made many important discoveries about Jezero Crater. NASA reported findings about the area's volcanic history, how it could have supported life, and the role of water.

• Scientists found several types of igneous rock (formed from cooled lava) instead of just sedimentary rocks (formed from layers of sediment). These igneous rocks showed signs of interacting with water.
• At a rock called "Wildcat Ridge," Perseverance found evidence of an ancient lake. The sediments there were likely deposited in water and continued to interact with water long after they formed. These environments would have been suitable for ancient microbial life and are perfect for preserving signs of it.
• The rover also found that sediments flowed into Jezero's lake, forming a delta. There was also evidence of powerful floods that carried large boulders into the crater later on.
• The MOXIE experiment successfully produced 122 grams of oxygen from Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere.
• Microphone studies showed that sound travels slower and is quieter on Mars than on Earth.
• Other instruments found various minerals like olivine, phosphates, sulfates, and carbonates, which tell us more about the chemical makeup of Mars.
• Radar images showed that the crater floor had a period of erosion before the delta formed, and the delta sediments were laid down in a calm lake environment.

Building the Perseverance Rover

Perseverance at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California, during its first test drive.

The Perseverance rover was designed based on its older cousin, the Curiosity rover. They share many similar parts, like their main body, landing system, and power system. However, Perseverance has some important upgrades.

• Stronger Wheels: Engineers made Perseverances wheels much tougher than Curiositys. They are thicker, more durable aluminum with a larger diameter (52.5 cm) and special cleats for better grip.
• Robotic Arm: Perseverance has a longer and stronger robotic arm, measuring 2.1 meters. This arm has a complex system for drilling into rocks and collecting samples in special, clean tubes. A smaller, hidden arm helps move these samples inside the rover.
• Heat Shield: The rover's heat shield was made from a material called PICA, designed to withstand extreme heat (up to 2400°F or 1315°C) during its fiery entry into Mars' atmosphere.
• Weight:' With all its new instruments and systems, Perseverance is heavier, weighing 1025 kg compared to Curiositys 899 kg.

Powering Perseverance

Perseverance uses a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) for power. This device weighs 45 kg and uses 4.8 kg of plutonium-238 oxide. The natural decay of plutonium-238 creates heat, which is turned into about 110 watts of electricity. This power charges two lithium-ion batteries that run the rover. Unlike solar panels, the MMRTG works day and night, even during dust storms and winter, giving scientists more flexibility.

Rover's Brain and Communication

The rover's computer uses a special radiation-hardened processor, similar to a PowerPC G3. It has 128 megabytes of memory and runs at 133 MHz. The software uses the VxWorks operating system. Perseverance communicates with Earth using three antennas, sending data through other spacecraft orbiting Mars. Its main antenna can send data at up to two megabits per second.

Perseverance Science Tools

NASA chose seven main instruments for Perseverance after reviewing many proposals. These tools help the rover achieve its science goals:

• Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE): This experiment successfully made a small amount of oxygen from Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere. This technology could be very important for future human missions, providing air to breathe or fuel for rockets.
• Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry (PIXL): This tool uses X-rays to figure out the exact chemical makeup of Martian rocks and soil.
• Radar Imager for Mars' subsurface experiment (RIMFAX): This radar can see up to 10 meters deep into the ground. It helps scientists find different layers, buried rocks, meteorites, and even underground water ice or salty water.
• Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA): This set of sensors measures the weather on Mars, including temperature, wind, pressure, humidity, and radiation.
• SuperCam: This instrument can take pictures, analyze chemicals, and identify minerals in rocks and soil from a distance. It uses lasers to study targets and look for signs of past life.
• Mastcam-Z: This camera system takes amazing 3D pictures and can zoom in. Many of its photos are available in the NASA photogallery.
• Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC): This tool uses a special laser and camera to find tiny minerals and organic compounds (which are the building blocks of life).

Perseverance also has many other cameras and two microphones. These are the first working microphones on Mars, allowing us to hear sounds from another planet! You can learn more about all the rover's parts at Learn About the Rover.

Diagram of Perseverance's scientific instruments.

Cameras that recorded the descent and landing.

All the cameras onboard the rover.

The Ingenuity Helicopter: First Flight on Mars

The Ingenuity helicopter traveled to Mars with Perseverance. This small helicopter, weighing 1.8 kg, proved that flying in the thin Martian atmosphere is possible. It showed how useful aerial scouting could be for future rover missions. Ingenuity had two cameras but no science tools. It communicated with Earth through Perseverance.

Ingenuity was originally planned for only three flights over 45 days. However, it far exceeded expectations, completing 72 flights in almost three years! After its first few flights, it took on more challenging journeys, many of which were recorded by Perseverance's cameras. Its first historic flight was on April 19, 2021, making it the first powered flight by any aircraft on another planet. On January 18, 2024, Ingenuity made its 72nd and final flight. It suffered damage to a rotor blade, leading NASA to retire it.

Ingenuity helicopter deployed on the Martian surface.

Naming the Rover

NASA's Thomas Zurbuchen announced the rover's official name, Perseverance, on March 5, 2020. This happened at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia. The name was chosen from a contest for students across the U.S.

Thomas Zurbuchen, a leader at NASA's Science Mission Directorate, chose the name Perseverance. This name came from a nationwide contest for K-12 students, which received over 28,000 ideas! A seventh-grade student named Alexander Mather from Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, submitted the winning entry.

Alexander and his family were invited to watch the rover's launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. He was joined by Vaneeza Rupani, an 11th-grade student from Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama, who named the Ingenuity helicopter.

Alexander wrote in his winning essay:

Curiosity. InSight. Spirit. Opportunity. If you think about it, all of these names of past Mars rovers are qualities we possess as humans. We are always curious, and seek opportunity. We have the spirit and insight to explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond. But, if rovers are to be the qualities of us as a race, we missed the most important thing: Perseverance. We as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh. We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere. We, not as a nation but as humans, will not give up. The human race will always persevere into the future.

OPTIMISM: The Twin Rover

The full-scale twin engineering model of Perseverance, called OPTIMISM, is used at the JPL Mars Yard for testing and solving problems.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) built an exact copy of Perseverance! This twin rover is named OPTIMISM (Operational Perseverance Twin for Integration of Mechanisms and Instruments Sent to Mars). It lives at the JPL Mars Yard and is used to test out all the rover's movements and procedures. If any problems come up with Perseverance on Mars, scientists can try to solve them first using OPTIMISM here on Earth.

Perseverance on Mars

Journey and Landing

The Perseverance rover successfully launched on July 30, 2020, aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The rover traveled for 29 weeks to reach Mars. It made a perfect landing in Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, at 20:55 UTC. The signal confirming the landing took 11 minutes to reach Earth. The landing was incredibly accurate, closer to its target than any previous Mars mission. This was possible thanks to new steering technology called Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN). TRN allows the rover to compare images taken during its descent with maps, making last-minute adjustments to land safely in a chosen spot.

A small crater made by a part of the spacecraft during landing.

The landing site and spacecraft debris in February 2021.

The Octavia E. Butler Landing Site in Jezero Crater (March 5, 2021).

Possible routes for the rover in March 2021.

Map of Perseverance's Delta Top Campaign.

A few days after landing, Perseverance released the first audio recorded on the surface of Mars, capturing the sound of the Martian wind.

Perseverance's Pet Rocks

Around February 4, 2022, scientists noticed something fun: a small rock had dropped into one of Perseverance's wheels! This "pet rock" stayed with the rover for over 439 Earth days as Perseverance traveled more than 6 miles (10 km) across Mars. NASA joked that Perseverance had adopted a pet rock for its journey. Later, by May 2024, the rover picked up another pet rock named "Dwayne."

Exploring the Crater

Total tracks of Ingenuity and Perseverance as of November 10, 2023.

Perseverance has explored the bottom and upper parts of the ancient Neretva Vallis delta, which is 3.4 to 3.8 billion years old. It also studied the Jezero Crater floor, which might contain volcanic ash. The rover plans to climb onto the Jezero Crater rim in the future.

Perseverance made its first test drive on Mars on March 4, 2021. NASA shared photos of the rover's first wheel tracks on the Martian soil.

Perseverance's first test drive (March 4, 2021)

The rover's first wheel tracks.

A GIF showing the rover's first test drive.

Marks from the rocket and the rover's tracks.

Samples for Earth

Perseverance rover's sampling bits

• The pointed one with two windows on the left is the regolith drill.
• The two shorter ones on the right are abrasion tools.
• The others in the center are rock drills.

Perseverance rover - cored rock sample collection as of July 24, 2025.

As part of the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission, Perseverance is collecting rock, regolith (Martian soil), and even atmosphere samples. As of July 2025, 33 out of 43 sample tubes have been filled. These include samples of igneous rock, sedimentary rock, and special "witness tubes" that collect any particles from the Martian environment. These precious samples are waiting to be picked up and brought back to Earth by future missions.

Possible Signs of Ancient Life

In July 2024, Perseverance made an exciting discovery: "leopard spots" on a reddish rock called "Cheyava Falls" in Mars' Jezero Crater. These spots have some features that suggest the rock might have once hosted microbial life billions of years ago. More research is needed to confirm this incredible finding!

Special Items on Perseverance

"Send Your Name to Mars"

NASA's "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign invited people from all over the world to send their names to Mars. Over 10 million names were submitted! These names were etched onto three tiny, fingernail-sized silicon chips. The chips also hold the essays from the 155 finalists of the "Name the Rover" contest. These chips are mounted on a special plate on the rover, which also has a laser-engraved image of Earth, Mars, and the Sun. The Sun's rays spell out "Explore As One" in Morse code.

"Send Your Name to Mars" campaign of Mars 2020

The "Send Your Name" placard on the Perseverance rover on Earth (March 26, 2020).

A sample souvenir boarding pass for those who sent their names to Mars.

The "Send Your Name" placard, now on Mars (February 28, 2021).

Geocaching in Space

SHERLOC's calibration target aboard the Perseverance Mars rover, with a Mars Meteorite in the center of the top row.

Perseverance carries a special geocaching item! Geocaching is like a treasure hunt using GPS. This item is a small disk with a geocaching code printed on it. You can see it with the SHERLOC instrument's WATSON camera. People can find this code in NASA's camera views and log it on the geocaching website. The disk is also made of a special material, like what might be used for astronaut helmet visors, which is being tested for future human missions to Mars.

Honoring Healthcare Workers

A plate honoring healthcare workers, seen before being attached to the rover.

Perseverance launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. To show thanks to healthcare workers, an 8 x 13 cm plate with a staff-and-serpent symbol (an ancient Greek symbol for medicine) was placed on the rover. The project manager, Matt Wallace, hoped that future generations exploring Mars would remember the healthcare heroes of 2020.

NASA Mars Rover Family Portrait

A family portrait on the rover. From left to right: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, Perseverance and Ingenuity.

One of the plates on Perseverance shows a simplified picture of all the NASA Martian rovers that came before it: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and also Perseverance itself, plus the Ingenuity helicopter. It's like a family photo for the Mars explorers!

Parachute with a Secret Message

Perseverance's parachute.

The orange-and-white parachute that landed Perseverance on Mars had a secret coded message! NASA engineer Ian Clark used binary code to hide the phrase "dare mighty things" in the parachute's color pattern. The 70-foot-wide (21-meter) parachute had 80 strips of fabric, each with four pieces, giving him 320 pieces to encode the message. He also included the GPS coordinates for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's headquarters in Pasadena, California. Twitter users quickly deciphered the code after images were released!

"Dare mighty things" is a famous quote from U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt and is the unofficial motto of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA Outreach to Students

NASA Eventbrite Virtual Guest Program Post flight mission patch given to Eventbrite subscribers during Perseverance landing

In December 2021, the NASA team started a program to recognize students who showed "perseverance" with academic challenges. Those nominated received a personal message beamed back from Mars by the Perseverance rover.

You've Got Perseverance - Nominate A Student
(December 9, 2021)

Images for kids

• 

  Octavia E. Butler Landing
  (February 2021)

• 

  Smoke plume from the descent stage right after landing.

• 

  View from the rear right Hazard Avoidance Camera.

• 

  Sol 213: the parachute and the backshell are laying on a ridge 2 km north from Perseverance which resides among the ripples of Séítah-S.

• 

  First color photo from Perseverance.

• 

  The panoramic view after the first long drive on sol 14.

• 

  One of Perseverance's wheels.

• 

  Start position within the landing ellipse.

• 

  Landing ellipse and landing site.

• 

  Campaign plans for 2021–2022.

• 

  Mars Helicopter Route Options out of 'Séítah' with EDL hardware.

• 

  The rover track as of sols 52–64 at Van Zyl Overlook.

• 

  Variants as of sol 174 (August 19, 2021).

• 

  Positioning before the 2021 solar conjunction.
  R²¹⁰ is the rover position on sol 210;
  H¹⁶³₁, H¹⁷⁴₂ and H¹⁹³₃ means 1st, 2nd and 3rd landing sites of Ingenuity on the Field H on sols 163, 174 and 193 respectively.

• 

  Perseverance captured by Hirise camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at Maaz formation on February 26, 2022.

• 

  Wright Brothers Field, April 2021.

• 

  Perseverance spotted by Ingenuity on its 11th flight, August 2021.

• 

  Rochette, September 2021.

• 

  Cheyava Falls, July 2024.

• 

  Bell Island, May 2025.

• 

  Ingenuity photographed the spacecraft backshell and parachute (April 19).

• 

  April 22, 2021. First aerial image taken by Ingenuity.

• 

  July 5, 2021. Ingenuity flies over Perseverance tracks.

• 

  Panoramic 360° view from Perseverance's landing site, stitched together from more than 100 individual images.

• 

  April 4, 2021 (Sol 44) at 14:02:08 local mean solar time. Ingenuity with its solar cells sprinkled with sand stands before the rover.

• 

  In its third flight Ingenuity spots Perseverance (left) in the aerial photo.

See also

In Spanish: Perseverance para niños