From 'Tribulation' to 'Perseverance' on Mars

This graphic shows the route that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove in its final approach to 'Perseverance Valley' on the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The map covers an area about four-tenths of a mile (two-thirds of a kilometer) wide, with the interior of the crater on the right. Opportunity entered this mapped area from the north along the gold traverse line on March 21, 2017, approaching the southern tip of the "Cape Tribulation" segment of Endeavour's rim. It reached the top of "Perseverance Valley" with a drive on Sol 4720 (the 4,720th Martian day) of the mission, on May 4, 2017. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21496

Wheels are installed on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover inside Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on March 30, 2020. Perseverance will liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in July 2020. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy is managing the launch. The rover will land on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.

Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Wheels

Mars 2020 Perseverance Encapsulation

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is being prepared for encapsulation in the United Launch Alliance Atlas V payload fairing on June 18, 2020. The Mars Perseverance rover is scheduled to launch on July 20, 2020, atop the Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The rover’s seven instruments will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. The Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management.

Mars 2020 Perseverance Encapsulation

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is being prepared for encapsulation in the United Launch Alliance Atlas V payload fairing on June 18, 2020. The Mars Perseverance rover is scheduled to launch on July 20, 2020, atop the Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The rover’s seven instruments will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. The Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management.

Mars 2020 Perseverance Encapsulation

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is encapsulated in the two halves of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V payload fairing on June 18, 2020. The Mars Perseverance rover is scheduled to launch on July 20, 2020, atop the Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The rover’s seven instruments will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. The Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management.

Mars 2020 Perseverance Encapsulation

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is being encapsulated in the United Launch Alliance Atlas V payload fairing on June 18, 2020. The Mars Perseverance rover is scheduled to launch on July 20, 2020, atop the Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The rover’s seven instruments will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. The Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management.

This illustration depicts NASA's Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars. Perseverance will land at the Red Planet's Jezero Crater a little after 3:40 p.m. EST (12:40 p.m. PST) on Feb. 18, 2021. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23764

Perseverance on Mars

An illustration of the planet Mars, highlighting NASA's Mars Perseverance rover mission. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24348

Mars Perseverance Rover (Gradient Illustration)

Crater Rim and Plain at Head of 'Perseverance Valley,' Mars

"Perseverance Valley" lies just on the other side of the dip in the crater rim visible in the left half of this 360-degree panorama from the Navigation Camera (Navcam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. As the rover arrived at this area in early May 2017, researchers began looking for clues about what process carved the valley. The rover team plans to drive Opportunity all the way down the valley into the interior of Endeavour Crater. The foreground and the area to the right are on the plain just outside of Endeavour Crater. The high point near the center of the image is called "Winnemucca," part of an Endeavour rim segment called "Cape Byron." Endeavour's interior and distant eastern rim are visible at upper left, above the notched portion of the western rim that sits directly above Perseverance Valley. The rover's Navcam took the component images of this scene on May 2 and May 3, 2017, during the 4,718th and 4,719th Martian days, or sols, of Opportunity's work on Mars, two days before a drive that brought Opportunity to the head of the valley. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21495