Data from the powerful science tool includes sounds of its laser zapping a rock in order to test what it’s made of.  

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — The first readings from the SuperCam instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover have arrived on Earth. SuperCam was developed jointly by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and a consortium of French research laboratories under the auspices of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The instrument delivered data to the French Space Agency’s operations center in Toulouse that includes the first audio of laser zaps on another planet.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover performed its first drive on Mars March 4, covering 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across the Martian landscape. The drive served as a mobility test that marks just one of many milestones as team members check out and calibrate every system, subsystem, and instrument on Perseverance. Once the rover begins pursuing its science goals, regular commutes extending 656 feet (200 meters) or more are expected.

The giant canopy that helped land Perseverance on Mars was tested here on Earth at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

WALLOPS, Va. (NASA PR) — Test. Test again. Test again.

Testing spacecraft components prior to flight is vital for a successful mission.

Two Stony Brook professors involved in the Perseverance nission weigh In

STONY BROOK, NY, February 22, 2021 (Stony Brook University PR) — The new era of space exploration features two Stony Brook University faculty members as part of the development of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover that recently landed. Distinguished Professor Scott McLennan and Associate Professor Joel Hurowitz both worked on the PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) that is attached to the arm of the rover.

The PIXL is a micro-focus X-ray fluorescence instrument that rapidly measures elemental chemistry by focusing an X-ray beam to a tiny spot on the target rock or soil, analyzing the induced X-ray fluorescence. Both professors have been working on Mars missions with NASA since 2004.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — New video from NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover chronicles major milestones during the final minutes of its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) on the Red Planet on Feb. 18 as the spacecraft plummeted, parachuted, and rocketed toward the surface of Mars. A microphone on the rover also has provided the first audio recording of sounds from Mars.

Video Caption: NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission captured thrilling footage of its rover landing in Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The real footage in this video was captured by several cameras that are part of the rover’s entry, descent, and landing suite. The views include a camera looking down from the spacecraft’s descent stage (a kind of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its landing […]

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA will hold a virtual briefing at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) today to unveil the “How to Land on Mars” video, which will present first-of-its-kind footage the Perseverance rover captured as it touched down on the Red Planet Feb. 18. The agency also will show new images the rover took on the Martian surface.

The briefing will be broadcast on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website and stream live on multiple agency social media platforms.

NASA TV will be busy on Monday with the rendezvous and capture of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus CRS-15 cargo ship to the International Space Station and an update on the Perseverance Rover on Mars. NASA is promising new imagery and video from the Red Planet. Cameras recorded Perseverance’s descent to Mars. I predict the video will break the Internet. The schedule is below. Watch it all live on NASA TV. Feb. 22, […]

• NOVA takes viewers behind the scenes as NASA’s Perseverance rover touches down in Mars’ Jezero crater
• Premieres Wednesday, February 24 at 9 p.m. ET/8C on PBS
• Also Available for Streaming Online and on the PBS video app

BOSTON, February 19, 2021 (PBS PR) — LOOKING FOR LIFE ON MARS, a one-hour special from the PBS science series NOVA, a production of GBH Boston, will follow NASA’s Mars 2020 mission—perhaps the most ambitious search yet for traces of ancient life on the red planet. The special premieres Wednesday, February 24 at 9 p.m. ET/8C on PBS and will be available for streaming online and on the PBS video app.

PASADENA, Calif., (Motiv Space Systems PR) — After traveling for about 7 months and nearly 300 million miles, NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover landed on the Red Planet on Thursday. After landing, the rover will rely on several technologies developed by Motiv Space Systems, a space robotics company based in Pasadena, California.