A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (the European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA will hold a virtual briefing at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) today to unveil the “How to Land on Mars” video, which will present first-of-its-kind footage the Perseverance rover captured as it touched down on the Red Planet Feb. 18. The agency also will show new images the rover took on the Martian surface.
The briefing will be broadcast on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website and stream live on multiple agency social media platforms.
Discussing the footage and the mission will be:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
- Michael Watkins, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
- Matt Wallace, Perseverance deputy project manager, JPL
- Al Chen, Perseverance entry, descent, and landing lead, JPL
- Dave Gruel, Perseverance EDL camera lead, JPL
- Justin Maki, Perseverance imaging scientist and instrument operations team chief, JPL
- Jessica Samuels, Perseverance surface mission manager, JPL
- Ken Williford, Perseverance deputy project scientist, JPL
The teleconference number used for media briefings in advance of and following Perseverance landing will be used again for the Monday briefing. To request the number, reporters must provide their name and affiliation by noon EST (9 a.m. PST) Feb. 22, to Rexana Vizza at rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov.
Media and the public also may ask questions on social media during the briefing using #CountdownToMars.
Following Monday’s briefing, at 4 p.m., NASA will host a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” in the r/IAmA community with scientists, engineers, and mission experts who will answer questions from the public about the mission and new imagery. Read NASA’s tweet about it:
To learn more about Perseverance, visit:
and
-end-
Grey Hautaluoma / Alana Johnson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
Jia-Rui Cook / Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-5011
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov / good@jpl.nasa.gov