![]() ![]() Perseverance also used the same entry, descent and landing (EDL) strategy as Curiosity. "These will gather science data in ways that weren't possible before." Perseverance's seven instruments "build on the success of MSL, which was a proving ground for new technology," said George Tahu, NASA's Perseverance program executive. Curiosity's main task involves assessing the habitability of ancient Mars, whereas Perseverance will hunt for evidence of ancient Martians. But those instruments are quite different than the gear aboard Curiosity, because the two rovers have divergent goals. Like Curiosity, Perseverance has a rectangular body, six wheels, a robotic arm, a drill for sampling rocks, cameras and scientific instruments. (1,025 kilograms), Perseverance weighs less than a compact car. Perseverance is about 10 feet long (not including its robotic arm), 9 feet wide, and 7 feet tall (about 3 meters long, 2.7 meters wide and 2.2 meters tall). Roughly 85% of Perseverance's mass is based on Curiosity "heritage hardware," saving NASA time and money and reducing risk considerably, agency officials have said. ![]() The Perseverance rover used the same sky crane landing system as Curiosity, but with the ability to land in more challenging terrain with two enhancements, making more rugged sites eligible as safe landing candidates.Like Curiosity, the Perseverance rover was built by engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. On the rover’s mast, two science instruments provide high-resolution imaging and three types of spectroscopy for characterizing rocks and soil from a distance, also helping to determine which rock targets to explore up close. Two science instruments mounted on the rover’s robotic arm are used to search for signs of past life and determine where to collect samples by analyzing the chemical, mineral, physical, and organic characteristics of Martian rocks. Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and bring them to Earth for in-depth analysis using powerful laboratory equipment too large to take to Mars. increases the likelihood that especially valuable samples will be accessible for retrieval. Perseverance will likely create multiple “depots” later in the mission for this purpose. Throughout its exploration of the region, the rover will collect promising samples, sealing them are tubes and storing them in its chassis until Perseverance deposits them on the Martian surface to be retrieved by a future mission. The rover carries an entirely new subsystem to collect and prepare Martian rocks and sediment samples that includes a coring drill on its arm and a rack of sample titanium tubes in its chassis. ![]() Perseverance is investigating Jezero Crater – a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been favorable for microbial life – probing the Martian rocks for evidence of past life. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. ![]() The Perseverance Mars rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. ![]()
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