Perseverance (rover)

# Perseverance (rover)

***Perseverance*** [^4] is a NASA rover that has been exploring Mars since February 18, 2021,[^5] [^6] as part of the Mars 2020 mission. Built and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it was launched on July 30, 2020,[^7] from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas V rocket and landed in Jezero Crater, a site chosen for its ancient river delta that may preserve evidence of past microbial life.

The rover's main goals are to search for signs of ancient life, study the planet's geology and climate, and collect rock and regolith samples for possible return to Earth by a future mission. *Perseverance* also tests technologies intended to support later human exploration, including an experiment that successfully produced oxygen from the thin carbon-dioxide atmosphere.[^8]

*Perseverance* carries seven primary scientific instruments, 19 cameras, and two microphones.[^9] It also deployed the experimental helicopter *Ingenuity*, which in April 2021 performed the first powered and controlled flight on another planet.[^10] Originally intended for up to five flights, *Ingenuity* completed dozens of sorties before being retired in 2024.[^11] [^12]

Powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, *Perseverance* has an expected mission duration of over a decade.[^13] It has provided high-resolution panoramas, drilled and cached samples for later retrieval, and identified rocks which may have been habitable for ancient microbial life in Jezero Crater. In July 2024, it discovered the Cheyava Falls rock containing "possible biosignature." As of 30 June 2026, *Perseverance* has been active on Mars for 1906 sols (1958 total days; *5 years, 132 days*) since its landing.

## Mission

Despite the high-profile success of the *Curiosity* rover landing in August 2012, NASA's Mars Exploration Program was in a state of uncertainty in the early 2010s. Budget cuts forced NASA to pull out of a planned collaboration with the European Space Agency which included a rover mission.[^14] By the summer of 2012, a program that had been launching a mission to Mars every two years suddenly found itself with no missions approved after 2013.[^15]

In 2011, the Planetary Science Decadal Survey, a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine containing an influential set of recommendations made by the planetary science community, stated that the top priority of NASA's planetary exploration program in the decade between 2013 and 2022 should be to begin a NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return campaign, a four-mission project to cache, retrieve, launch, and safely return samples of the Martian surface to Earth. The report stated that NASA should invest in a sample-caching rover as the first step in this effort, with the goal of keeping costs under US$2.5 billion.[^16]

After the success of the *Curiosity* rover and in response to the recommendations of the decadal survey, NASA announced its intent to launch a new Mars rover mission by 2020 at the American Geophysical Union conference in December 2012.[^17]

Though initially hesitant to commit to an ambitious sample-caching capability (and subsequent follow-on missions), a NASA-convened science definition team for the Mars 2020 project released a report in July 2013 that the mission should "select and store a compelling suite of samples in a returnable cache." [^18]

### Science objectives

The *Perseverance* rover has four main science objectives [^19] that support the Mars Exploration Program 's science goals:[^8]

- Looking for habitability: identify past environments that were capable of supporting microbial life.
- Seeking biosignatures: seek signs of possible past microbial life in those habitable environments, particularly in specific rock types known to preserve signs over time.
- Caching samples: collect core rock and regolith (unconsolidated and loose "soil") samples and store them within the rover and on the Martian surface (as a backup) for delivery to a future sample return rocket.[^20]
- Preparing for humans: test oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere.

In the first science campaign, dubbed "Crater Floor", *Perseverance* performed an arching drive southward from its landing site to the Séítah unit to perform a "toe dip" into the unit to collect remote-sensing measurements of geologic targets. After that it returned to the Crater Floor Fractured Rough to collect the first core sample there. Passing by the Octavia E. Butler landing site concluded the first science campaign.

The second campaign, "Fan Front", included several months of travel towards the "Three Forks" where *Perseverance* accessed geologic locations at the base of the ancient delta of Neretva river, as well as ascending the delta by driving up a valley wall to the northwest.[^21]

The third and fourth campaigns were called "Upper Fan", and "Margin Unit", and the fifth campaign, "Northern Rim", in progress as of December 2024, is exploring "the northern part of the southwestern section of Jezero's rim" to study "rocks from deep down inside Mars that were thrown upward to form the crater rim" after the impact 3.9 billion years ago that formed Jezero Crater.[^22]

#### Results

The scientific results, as of 2025, are as follows. According to NASA, the mission has made "discoveries about the volcanic history, habitability, and role of water in Jezero Crater." [^23] Specifically, they reported that instead of all the rocks in Jezero crater being sedimentary, being "transported into the crater by wind or water," "several types of igneous rock" were discovered, which "showed evidence of interaction with water." [^23] Additionally,

> At a rock named "Wildcat Ridge" located within Jezero's well-preserved sedimentary fan deposit, Perseverance found evidence for an ancient lake environment. Not only were these sediments likely deposited in a standing body of water, but they also continued to interact with water long after they were formed. The environments recorded within the rocks at Wildcat Ridge would have been habitable for ancient microbial life, and this type of rock is ideal for preserving possible signs of ancient life.[^23]

They also found that "sediments entering Jezero's lake were deposited in a delta" and "evidence for late-stage, high-energy flooding that carried large boulders into the crater." [^23] The MOXIE experiment produced 122 grams of oxygen from carbon dioxide.[^23] The microphone studies showed that the speed of sound is slower and the volumes of sounds transmitted through the atmosphere is lower, than on Earth.[^23] PIXL found that the Seitah formation and a rock at "Otis Peak" contained olivine, phosphates, sulfates, clays, carbonate minerals, silicate minerals, "augite pyroxene, feldspathic mesostasis, various Fe,Cr,Ti-spinels, and merrillite", perchlorate, feldspar, magnesite, siderite, oxides, as well as minerals with composition including magnesium, iron, chlorine, and sodium.[^24] [^25] SHERLOC revealed findings of high concentrations of macromolecules filled with carbon on the Cheyava Falls and Apollo Temple rocks, though it was incapable of determining whether they were of biotic origin or not.[^26] RIMFAX revealed findings "consistent with a subsurface dominated by solid rock and mafic material" [^27] and that "the crater floor experienced a period of erosion before the deposition of the overlying delta strata. The regularity and horizontality of the basal delta sediments observed in the radar cross sections indicate that they were deposited in a low-energy lake environment." [^28]

## Design

Perseverance in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California

The *Perseverance* design evolved from its predecessor, the *Curiosity* rover. The two rovers share a similar body plan, landing system, cruise stage, and power system, but the design was improved in several ways for *Perseverance*. Engineers designed the rover wheels to be more robust than *Curiosity* 's wheels, which had sustained some damage.[^29] *Perseverance* has thicker, more durable aluminum wheels, with reduced width and a greater diameter, 52.5 cm (20.7 in), than *Curiosity* 's 50 cm (20 in) wheels.[^30] [^31] The aluminum wheels are covered with cleats for traction and curved titanium spokes for springy support.[^32] The heat shield for the rover was made out of phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator (PICA), to allow it to withstand up to 2,400 °F (1,320 °C) of heat.[^33] Like *Curiosity*, the rover includes a robotic arm, although *Perseverance* 's arm is longer and stronger, measuring 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in). The arm hosts an elaborate rock-coring and sampling mechanism to store geologic samples from the Martian surface in sterile caching tubes.[^34] There is also a secondary arm hidden below the rover that helps store the chalk-sized samples. This arm is known as the Sample Handling Assembly (SHA), and is responsible for moving the soil samples to various stations within the Adaptive Caching Assembly (ACA) on the underside of the rover. These stations include volume assessment (measuring the length of sample), imaging, seal dispensing, and hermetic seal station, among others.[^35] Owing to the small space in which the SHA must operate, as well as load requirements during sealing activities, the Sample Caching System "is the most complicated, most sophisticated mechanism that we have ever built, tested and readied for spaceflight." [^36]

The combination of larger instruments, new sampling and caching system, and modified wheels makes *Perseverance* heavier, weighing 1,025 kg (2,260 lb) compared to *Curiosity* at 899 kg (1,982 lb), a 14% increase.[^37]

The rover's multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) has a mass of 45 kg (99 lb) and uses 4.8 kg (11 lb) of plutonium-238 oxide as its power source. The radioactive decay of plutonium-238, which has a half-life of 87.7 years, gives off heat which is converted to electricity —approximately 110 watts at launch.[^38] This will decrease over time as its power source decays.[^38] The MMRTG charges two lithium-ion rechargeable batteries which power the rover's activities, and must be recharged periodically. Unlike solar panels, the MMRTG provides engineers with significant flexibility in operating the rover's instruments even at night, during dust storms, and through winter.[^38]

The rover's computer uses the BAE Systems RAD750 radiation-hardened single board computer based on a ruggedized PowerPC G3 microprocessor (PowerPC 750). The computer contains 128 megabytes of volatile DRAM, and runs at 133 MHz. The flight software runs on the VxWorks operating system, is written in C and is able to access 4 gigabytes of NAND non-volatile memory on a separate card.[^39] *Perseverance* relies on three antennas for telemetry, all of which are relayed through craft currently in orbit around Mars. The primary UHF antenna can send data from the rover at a maximum rate of two megabits per second. Having multiple antennas provides communications redundancy.[^40]

## Instruments

    <video controls="" width="250" height="185"><source src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/09/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm.480p.vp9.webm" type="video/webm; codecs=&quot;vp9, opus&quot;"> <source src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/09/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm.1080p.vp9.webm" type="video/webm; codecs=&quot;vp9, opus&quot;"> <source src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm" type="video/webm; codecs=&quot;vp9&quot;"> <source src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/09/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm.144p.mjpeg.mov" type="video/quicktime"> <source src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/09/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm/PIA24641-MarsPerseveranceRover-WatsonCameraViewsRocks-20210510.webm.240p.vp9.webm" type="video/webm; codecs=&quot;vp9, opus&quot;"></video>

WATSON camera views rocks (Mars; video; 0:05; May 10, 2021)

NASA considered nearly 60 proposals [^42] [^43] for rover instrumentation. On July 31, 2014, NASA announced the seven instruments that would make up the payload for the rover:[^44] [^45]

- Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE), an exploration technology investigation to produce a small amount of oxygen (O <sub>2</sub>) from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO <sub>2</sub>). On April 20, 2021, 5.37 grams of oxygen were produced in an hour, with nine more extractions planned over the course of two Earth years to further investigate the instrument.[^46] This technology could be scaled up in the future for human life support or to make the rocket fuel for return missions.[^47] [^48]
- Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to determine the fine scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials.[^49] [^50] [^51]
- Radar Imager for Mars' subsurface experiment (RIMFAX), a ground-penetrating radar to image different ground densities, structural layers, buried rocks, meteorites, and detect underground water ice and salty brine at 10 m (33 ft) depth. The RIMFAX is being provided by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI).[^52] [^53] [^54] [^55]
- Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), a set of sensors that measure temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, radiation, and dust particle size and shape. It is provided by Spain 's Centro de Astrobiología.[^56]
- SuperCam, an instrument suite that can provide imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy in rocks and regolith from a distance. It is an upgraded version of the ChemCam on the *Curiosity* rover but with two lasers and four spectrometers that will allow it to remotely identify biosignatures and assess the past habitability. SuperCam is used in conjunction with the AEGIS targeting system. Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP) in France, the French Space Agency (CNES), the University of Hawaii, and the University of Valladolid in Spain cooperated in the SuperCam's development and manufacture.[^57] [^58]
- Mastcam-Z, a stereoscopic imaging system with the ability to zoom.[^59] [^60] Many photos were included in the published NASA photogallery. (Including Raw)
- Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC), an ultraviolet Raman spectrometer that uses fine-scale imaging and an ultraviolet (UV) laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy and detect organic compounds.[^61] [^62]

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[^2]: Aerial image by *Ingenuity*

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