NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is scheduled to land on Mars on Thursday, February 18th, 2021. Touchdown is schedule for approximately 3:55 p.m. EST.
Perseverance launched on July 30th, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Read on for a number of ways to watch the landing, the rover’s mission, as well as some pre and post landing events. There’s even a way to get a picture of yourself with a background of Mars or mission control.
How to watch the Perseverance rover land on Mars
Live coverage with landing commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will begin at 2:15 p.m., and you can watch on a number of platforms, including:
How will the Perseverance rover land on Mars?
During landing, the rover will plunge through the thin Martian atmosphere at more than 12,000 mph. A parachute and powered descent will slow the rover down to about 2 mph. During what is known as the sky crane maneuver, the descent stage will lower the rover on three cables to land softly on six wheels at Jezero Crater.
Perseverance also is carrying a technology experiment – the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
Perseverance’s mission
A key science objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life.
The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and will be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and sediment for later return to Earth.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
This mission is part of a larger NASA initiative that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of Mars.
NASA Virtual Guest Experience
NASA will provide a virtual guest experience for members of the public during landing, with notifications about mission updates, curated mission resources, and a virtual passport stamp available after landing.
Sign up for the Virtual Guest Experience.
More Ways to Experience and Celebrate Perseverance
Upload a picture to the Mars Perseverance Photo Booth and put yourself (or in this case, an alpaca) on Mars, or at mission control.
Eat a doughnut: Enjoy a Mars doughnut from Krispy Kreme. It’s a chocolate Kreme-filled doughnut dipped in caramel icing with a red planet swirl and sprinkled with chocolate cookie crumbs. If you had previously signed up to “send your name to Mars,” print out your “boarding pass” from NASA and you can get a FREE Mars doughnut.
Tune in with North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences: The Museum will be holding virtual programming from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., including model making, talks from scientists, a close look at the rover, a history of Mars exploration, and a live stream of the descent and landing.
NASA televised event schedule for Perseverance landing
NASA TV will air a number of events leading up to, including, and following the landing. Please check NASA TV Schedule for any updates.
Tuesday, Feb. 16
- 1 p.m. – News conference: Mission engineering and technology overview
- 3:30 p.m. – News conference: Mission science overview
Wednesday, Feb. 17
- 1 p.m. – News conference: Mission landing update
- 3 p.m. – News conference: Searching for Ancient Life at Mars and in Samples Returned to Earth
Thursday, Feb. 18
- 2:15 p.m. – Live landing Broadcast on the NASA TV Public Channel and online.
- In addition, an uninterrupted clean feed of cameras from inside JPL Mission Control, with mission audio only, will be available starting at 2 p.m. on the NASA TV Media Channel, and at JPL’s Raw YouTube channel.
- A 360-degree livestream of the Mars landing from inside mission control, including landing commentary, will be available at the JPL’s main YouTube channel.
- 2:30 p.m. – “Juntos perseveramos,” the Spanish-language live landing commentary show, will air on NASA en Español’s YouTube channel.
- Approximately 3:55 p.m. – Expected Perseverance touchdown on Mars
- No earlier than 5:30 p.m. – Postlanding news conference
Friday, Feb. 19
- 1 p.m. – News conference: Mission status update
Monday, Feb. 22
- 2 p.m. – News conference: Mission status update
Future events with NASA Live
The rover landing isn’t all that you can see on NASA Live.
NASA regularly presents information on groundbreaking science and technology, live views from space, and interviews with scientists and astronauts, as well as live events.
You can see the full schedule for NASA TV programming here.
In addition, NASA at Home offers videos, podcasts, ebooks, educational resources and activities.
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