"Perseverance is the first rover … The footage, shot from multiple cameras, captures the rover's entry, descent and landing on the red planet's Jezero Crater on Feb. 18. The goal of the mission is to seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) for possible return to Earth. A trail of wheel tracks left by NASA’s Perseverance rover after making its first drive on the Martian surface NASA/JPL Perseverance, the car-sized rover NASA landed on Mars … NASA released stunning new video for the first time Monday from its Perseverance rover's audacious landing on Mars last week. It will look directly for signs of past life on Mars. MORE: NASA's Perseverance successfully touches down on Mars Like Curiosity, the Perseverance rover is the size of a small SUV. Mission Name: Mars 2020 Rover Name: Perseverance Main Job: The Perseverance rover will seek signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth. The NASA mission includes Perseverance, a 2,200-pound rover, and Ingenuity, an experimental Mars helicopter. Loaded with scientific instruments, advanced computational capabilities for landing, and other new systems, the Perseverance rover is the largest, heaviest, most sophisticated vehicle NASA has ever sent to the Red Planet. The Perseverance rover took its first test drive on the surface of Mars this week, traversing some 21 feet of terrain in a short trip that scientists say represents a major milestone. The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will investigate a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been favorable for microbial life, probing the Martian rocks for evidence of past life. The mission sent a rover very similar to Curiosity to explore the rocks, dirt, and air on Mars. The Mars 2020 mission hopes to answer that question. Scroll and pan around this map to see the landing site for the Mars Perseverance rover at Jezero Crater. The first scientific focus of NASA's Perseverance rover is a rock named "Máaz"—the Navajo word for "Mars." In less than a month, NASA expects to launch the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Throughout its investigation, it will collect samples of soil and rock, and cache them on the surface for potential return to Earth by a future mission. The rover also has a sample caching system, which has nine different drill bits and many sample collection tubes to capture pieces of the Mars surface. The car-sized Perseverance, the centerpiece of NASA's $2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission, landed on the floor of Jezero Crater on Feb. 18.The rover's main tasks involve hunting for … Ingenuity Helicopter The four-pound aircraft will … The new rover has a different goal and different instruments. The landing area is marked with a blue ellipse and is the zone the team is targeting. Launch: July 30, 2020, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida Landed: Feb. 18, 2021 Landing Site: Jezero Crater, Mars Mission Duration: At least one Mars year (about 687 Earth days)