Perseverance, nicknamed Percy,[4][5] is an SUV-sized Mars rover designed to explore Jezero Crater on Mars as part of NASA‘s Mars 2020 mission. It was manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched on 30 July 2020 at 11:50:00 UTC.[1] Confirmation that the rover successfully landed on Mars was received on 18 February 2021 at 20:55 UTC.[2][6] As of 23 February 2021, Perseverance has been on Mars for 5 sols (5 Earth days).
Perseverance has a similar design to its predecessor rover, Curiosity, from which it was moderately upgraded; it carries seven primary payload instruments, 19 cameras, and two microphones.[7] The rover is also carrying the mini-helicopter Ingenuity, an experimental aircraft that will attempt the first powered flight on another planet.
The rover’s goals include looking for past Martian environments capable of supporting life, seeking out possible microbial life in those environments, collecting rock and soil samples to store on the Martian surface, and testing oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere to prepare for future manned missions.[8]
