NASA announced in a press conference that the name of its 2020 Mars rover is going to be Perseverance. This name was proposed by Alex Mather, a 13-year-old from Virginia, as part of a contest.
The launch window of Perseverance is between July 17 and August 5, 2020. The rover is expected to land on Mars on February 17, 2021 and its mission will last at least one year (687 Earth days).
The key objectives of the MARS 2020 Perseverance mission are:
• Explore a geologically diverse landing site
• Assess ancient habitability
• Seek signs of ancient life, particularly in special rocks known to preserve signs of life over time
• Gather rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth by a future NASA mission
• Demonstrate technology for future robotic and human exploration
The official Fact Sheet of the mission can be downloaded from the following link: https://mars.nasa.gov/files/mars2020/Mars2020_Fact_Sheet.pdf
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