Panorama of Mars from Perseverance Rover

This panorama, taken on Feb. 20, 2021, by theNavigation Cameras, or Navcams, aboard NASA'sPerseverance Mars rover, was stitched together fromsix individual images after they were sent back toEarth.

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars isastrobiology, including the search for signs of ancientmicrobial life. The rover will characterize the planet'sgeology and past climate, pave the way for humanexploration of the Red Planet, and be the first missionto collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

Subsequent missions, currently under consideration byNASA in cooperation with ESA (European SpaceAgency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collectthese cached samples from the surface and returnthem to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part ofNASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, whichincludes Artemis missions to the Moon that will helpprepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in SouthernCalifornia built and manages operations of the Mars2020 Perseverance rover for NASA.