An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover landing safely on Mars. Hundreds of critical events must be executed perfectly and just in time for the rover to land safely on Feb. 18, 2021. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Mark your calendars for live landing commentary, newsletterings, live-streamed Q&A, virtual viewing parties, student activities and more.
NASA invites the public to participate in virtual activities and events such as that of the agency Mars The 2020 Perseverance Rover is approaching entry, descent and landing on the Red Planet, with a landing scheduled for approximately 3:55 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 18.
Live coverage and landing commentary from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California begins at 2:15 p.m. EST on the NASA TV Public Channel and the agency’s website, as well as the NASA app, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion and THETA.TV.
One of the many firsts with this mission is the agency’s first-ever Spanish-language show for a planetary landing. On Thursday, February 18 at 2:30 PM, NASA will broadcast ‘Juntos perseveramos’, a show that gives viewers an overview of the mission to Mars and highlights the role Spanish NASA professionals have played in its success.
On landing, the rover dives through the rarefied atmosphere of Mars at more than 12,000 mph (about 20,000 km / h). A parachute and powered descent will slow the rover to about 2 mph (3 km / h). During what is known as the overhead crane maneuver, the descent will lower the rover on three cables to land softly on six wheels at Jezero Crater.
Perseverance is also conducting a technology experiment – the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
“If there is one thing we know, it’s that landing on Mars is never easy,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Communications Marc Etkind. But as NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance has an extraordinary technical pedigree and mission team. We are delighted to invite the whole world to share this exciting event with us! “
NASA offers the public many ways to participate and stay up to date with landing information, mission highlights, and opportunities for interaction.
Watch and participate virtually
Connect with like-minded space enthusiasts, receive a NASA Social badge, ask questions and participate in other virtual activities by registering for the Perseverance Rover Virtual NASA Social event.
NASA also provides a virtual guest experience for members of the public during the landing, with mission update notifications, curated mission resources, and a virtual passport stamp available after landing.
Stay connected and let people know you’re following the mission on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Join the conversation, ask questions and get answers online with #CountdownToMars.
Follow and tag these accounts:
Twitter: @NASA, @NASAPersevere, @NASAMars
Facebook: NASA, NASAPersevere
Instagram: NASA
Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. EST, a landing day preview of a NASA Social live show will be streamed live via the JPL YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
You can also track every step of entry, descent and landing with this visualization, previewing all the excitement with a new video:
All landings on Mars are difficult, but NASA’s Perseverance rover is attempting to land in the most challenging terrain on Mars ever targeted. The intense entry, descent, and landing phase, known as EDL, begins when the spacecraft reaches the top of Mars’ atmosphere. Engineers have called the time it takes to land on Mars the “seven minutes of terror.” Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Opportunities for students, teachers, educators
Design, build, and land your own spacecraft – just like NASA scientists and engineers do. Join NASA’s Mission to Mars Student Challenge, where classrooms, informal tutorial groups, families and individuals can participate in Landing Week question-and-answer sessions with mission experts and submit student questions and work to be presented during NASA’s lead broadcasts to and with landing day.
A Mars 2020 STEM toolkit is also available, with stories about the students who mentioned Perseverance and Ingenuity, opportunities to code your own Mars exploration games, and more.
Join scientists from NASA and JPL at a briefing from the National Academies Space Studies Board and Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 11:30 am EST to hear about Perseverance’s journey to Mars’ Jezero Crater, NASA’s Mars Sample Return, and the challenges the team has overcome. Participants include:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science
- Lori Glaze, Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division
- Bobby Braun, Mars Sample Return Program Manager at JPL
- Matt Wallace, Deputy Project Manager, Mars 2020 at JPL
- Katie Stack Morgan, Deputy Mars 2020 Project Scientist at JPL
Interactive experiences
You can also try a virtual photo booth that allows you to pose next to the Perseverance rover, listen to the differences between sounds on Mars and Earth, and view other interactive experiences on the mission’s website.
Send your name to Mars again!
Perseverance has three chips the size of a dime with 11 million names submitted by people around the world. Anyone who missed the opportunity to send their name on Perseverance can apply to send their name on a future Mars mission at:
https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020
Illuminate cities around the world in red
To celebrate the landing on the Red Planet of Perseverance, the Empire State Building in New York will illuminate its tower in red on Tuesday, February 16, starting at dusk until 2am EST the following morning. In addition, the Los Angeles International Airport gateway pylons will glow red from sunset on Wednesday, February 17, through sunrise on Friday, February 19. Other locations in the United States that acknowledge the impending landing include select buildings along the Chicago skyline, such as the Adler Planetarium. NASA is inviting cities across the country and the world to participate in “ lighting the city red. ”
Additional Resources
Landing press kits for the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter are available and include deeper mission and science dives, as well as links to image and video resources.
A persistence landing toolkit provides additional details on all planned activities for the landing week, as well as additional links for more information about the rover and helicopter.
Events program broadcast by NASA
In addition to social media coverage, NASA TV will broadcast a number of events leading up to, including and after landing.
Audience members can ask questions on social media during the events with #CountdownToMars.
The following events are currently scheduled to be broadcast live (all times in the east). Check the NASA TV schedule for the latest updates:
Tuesday, February 16
1:00 pm – Press conference: Mission engineering and technology overview
3.30 pm – Press conference: Mission science overview
Wednesday, 17th of February
1:00 pm – Press conference: update mission landing
3 p.m. – Press conference: Search for ancient life on Mars and returned to Earth in monsters
Thursday February 18
2:15 p.m. – Live landing broadcast on NASA TV’s public channel and online.
- In addition, an uninterrupted clean feed of cameras from JPL Mission Control, with mission audio only, will be available from 2pm on the NASA TV Media Channel and on JPL’s Raw YouTube channel.
A 360-degree livestream of the landing on Mars from mission control, including landing commentary, will be available on the JPL’s main YouTube channel.
2.30 pm – “Juntos perseveramos”, the Spanish-language show with live landing commentary, will be broadcast on NASA en Español’s YouTube channel.
Approximately 3:55 PM – Touchdown with expected persistence on Mars
No earlier than 5.30 pm – Post landing press conference
Friday February 19
1:00 pm – Press conference: Mission status update
Monday, February 22
2:00 pm – Press conference: Mission status update
To watch news conferences and commentary online, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/nasajpl/live
A full list of ways to watch online can be found at:
https://go.nasa.gov/3ojDWkj
More about the mission
A major scientific goal of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize past geology and climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and will be the first mission to collect and store Martian rock and sediment for a later return to Earth. Subsequent NASA missions, in collaboration 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.
The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger NASA initiative that includes missions to the moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the red planet. NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the moon through NASA’s lunar research plans for Artemis.