CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The next NASA robotic rover mission to Mars is a little more than a month away.
What You Need To Know
- Perserverance to launch from Space Coast on July 20
- DESTINATION SPACE: Latest News | Launch Schedule
The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover weighs some 2,300 pounds.
Its goal is to search for signs of past microbial life on the Red Planet, study Mars' climate and geology, and collect rock and soil samples.
All of this work will set the table for human exploration on Mars.
“Perseverance's main activities will be astrobiology, which is the study about how life comes to be, the environments that can support life, and the search to see if life exists anywhere else beyond Earth,” said Lori Glaze, Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.
Engineers have also attached a plate dedicated to the world's struggle with the coronavirus pandemic.
Perseverance will launch on United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station July 20 at 9:15 a.m.