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NASA Begins Building Next Mars Rover Mission

November 30, 2017

In just a couple of years, NASA’s newest rover will be flying to Mars. The Mars 2020 mission will use the next generation of science and landing technology to collect rock samples for possible return by a future mission.

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Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech

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This drill is a duplicate of the one aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. It was used in a test campaign to learn how crumbly rocks respond to the drill. 
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This drill is a duplicate of the one aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. It was used in a test campaign to learn how crumbly rocks respond to the drill.
Close up of a Perseverance Like Drill
This artist's sketch is loosely based on the Curiosity rover in NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Mission planners would potentially leverage aspects of this rover design for a Mars mission d...
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This artist's sketch is loosely based on the Curiosity rover in NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Mission planners would potentially leverage aspects of this rover design for a Mars mission designed to launch in 2020.
Rover Sketch, Artist's Concept
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this Martian dust devil moving east to west at a clip of about 12 mph (19 kph) along “Thorofare Ridge” on Aug. 30. The video, which was sped up 20 times, is compo...
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Video of Mars Helicopter, composed of 21 frames taken four seconds apart, showing Martian dust devil moving east to west at a clip of about 12 mph (19 kph) along “Thorofare Ridge” on Aug. 30.
Martian Whirlwind Takes the 'Thorofare'
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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this mosaic of a location nicknamed “Castell Henllys” using its Mastcam-Z camera on April 13, 2023, the 763rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Perseverance's Mastcam-Z Views 'Castell Henllys'
The actor Brad Pitt (right) shows off his "boarding pass" for Mars with Jennifer Trosper (left), the Mars 2020 project systems engineer, at JPL on Sept. 6, 2019. You can send your name to Mars aboa...
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The actor Brad Pitt (right) shows off his "boarding pass" for Mars with Jennifer Trosper (left), the Mars 2020 project systems engineer, at JPL on Sept. 6, 2019.
Send Your Name to Mars With Brad Pitt
This panorama, taken on Feb. 20, 2021, by the Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, was stitched together from six individual images after they were sent back to Ea...
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A panorama of Mars taken by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover
Perseverance Navcams 360-Degree Panorama
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Video taken by Perseverance’s navigation cameras shows the rover’s robotic arm twisting and maneuvering to take the 62 images that compose the image.
How NASA's Perseverance Rover Takes a Selfie
This image of Mars was taken from the height of 33 feet (10 meters) by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter during its sixth flight on May 22, 2021.
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This image of Mars was taken from the height of 33 feet (10 meters) by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter during its sixth flight on May 22, 2021.
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The Mars Helicopter and its Mars Helicopter Delivery System were attached to the Perseverance Mars rover at Kennedy Space Center on April 6, 2020. The helicopter will be deployed about two-and-a-ha...
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An image of the Mars Helicopter and its Mars Helicopter Delivery System attached to the Perseverance Mars rover
Mars Helicopter Aboard Perseverance
Members of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter team in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory react to data showing that the helicopter completed its first flight on April...
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Members of NASA's Ingenuity helicopter team in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory react to data showing that the helicopter completed its first flight
Ingenuity's Team Reacts to Data Showing It Completed Its First Flight
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Deep Space Network antennas at Goldstone's "Apollo Valley"
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This image shows the back of Coring Bit 2 in the bit carousel NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
Perseverance Coring Bit
An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars. Hundreds of critical events must execute perfectly and exactly on time for the rover to land safely on Feb. 18, 2021.
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Perseverance rover touching down on Mars with gradient background
Perseverance Rover Touchdown (Gradient Illustration)
One of the Navcam imagers aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Feb. 26, 2023, the 719th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The helicopter is visible in ...
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One of the Navcam imagers aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Feb. 26, 2023, the 719th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Perseverance's Navcam Captures Ingenuity
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NASA's Perseverance Rover Captures Puff, Whir, Zap Sounds from Mars
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its left Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover’s mast. This is one still frame from a sequence captured...
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NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its left Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover’s mast. This is one still frame from a sequence captured by the camera while taking video. This image was acquired on Apr. 22, 2021.
Ingenuity's Second Flight As Seen by Perseverance
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Image of rounded rocks called stromatolites
Stromatolites in the Nevada Desert
The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-...
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The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet.
Mars Helicopter
Engineering models of the Curiosity Mars rover (foreground) and the Perseverance Mars rover share space in the garage at JPL’s Mars Yard. 
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Engineering models of the Curiosity Mars rover (foreground) and the Perseverance Mars rover share space in the garage at JPL’s Mars Yard.
Twin Rover Twins
This image shows the remains of an ancient delta in Mars' Jezero Crater, which NASA's Perseverance Mars rover will explore for signs of fossilized microbial life. The image was taken by the High Re...
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A view of Mars' Jezero Crater
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NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission will collect the first samples from another planet (the red one) for return to Earth by subsequent missions.
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Engineers and technicians insert 39 sample tubes into the belly of the Mars rover
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Download an ATLAS rocket launch coloring sheet. 
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Coloring sheet of the Atlas rocket
ATLAS Rocket, Coloring Sheet

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