On February 18, 2021. NASA’s Perseverance mars rover touched down on Mars. The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover searches for signs of ancient microbial life, The rover has a drill to collect core samples of Martian rock and soil, then store them in sealed tubes for pickup by a future mission that would ferry them back to Earth for analysis.
It is the fastest rover on Mars driving with a top speed of 7 centimeters per second! (Okay that's pretty slow)
The mini drone Ingenuity took its first historic flight on April 19, 2021. The helicopter has flown almost 20 times on the red planet instead of the planned 5 flights. The Perseverance rover design is largely based on the design of the previous Curiosity rover which landed in 2012.
After landing the rover started taking full color images of Mars. The rover has collected over 5 samples of Mars. NASA wants to collect at least 18 samples in its prime mission.
NASA recently said that the rover has almost 70% of its prime goals achieved.
Perseverance’s prime mission ends in 2023. But hopefully it will keep on working. NASA says that the rover runs on Plutonium, (a ratio active chemical) and that Perseverance could be working past 2030
NASA hopes to return the samples that Perseverance has collected
By 2031 with help by the European Space Agency (ESA).
