This is the new Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover, a detailed 1:64 scale replica model based on the actual rover that will land on Mars on February 18, 2021. Image via CollectSPACE / David Chickering / Mattel.
The Perseverance rover landing on Mars is now just days away – on February 18, 2021 – and toy manufacturer Mattel is celebrating! The creator of the hugely popular Hot Wheels series is releasing a new die-cast scale model – the Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover, inspired by the real rover – to mark its landing.
How to watch live coverage of Perseverance’s landing
The new Hot Wheels model, a detailed 1:64 scale replica of Persistence (approximately 3 inches or 8 cm long), is part of a new space-themed mini collection, the first in over 20 years. It is intended for ages three and up and retails for a suggested retail price of $ 1.09. We haven’t yet found a place to buy the new Hot Wheels rover online, but it should be in stores since the end of January. Have a look for ‘Hot Wheels Stores Near Me’.
Manson Cheung, staff sculptor and chief 3D modeler for Mattel Hot Wheels, said in a post on CollectSpace.com:
We want the car to be there so kids can get their hands on it when the actual robber lands in February. We want kids to be like, ‘Oh, I’ve got the rover in my hand and I can see it on Mars,’ so there’s a connection for the kids, not just with Hot Wheels, but also with space.
The Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover as seen in the packaging in stores. Image via Mattel / YongTing Neoh.
According to Mattel’s press release:
Space exploration fans and Hot Wheels enthusiasts of all ages can re-enact the fascinating journey of NASA’s Perseverance Rover as it studies the Martian landscape looking for signs of ancient microbial life, collecting samples over the next year.
The Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover pays tribute to the very latest instruments and technologies that will help pave the way for human missions to Mars, studying critical data about the geology and climate of Mars, and ultimately returning samples from Mars to the Earth. soil.
Hot Wheels and NASA have a partnership that dates back more than 30 years and started in the mid-1980s. The first NASA model made by Hot Wheels was the Sojourner Mars Rover in 1996, part of the company’s Action Packs at the time. This was followed by the Apollo Mission (1998), the Galileo Mission (1999), John Glenn (1999) and JPL Returns to Mars (1999).
Hot Wheels design teams are allowed to tour the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to see the actual spacecraft before launch.
Due to the current interest in space exploration among both children and the general public, Hot Wheels has brought back the Space mini collection for 2021. Needless to say, the Perseverance rover is a perfect addition to that collection.
Better view of the Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover model. Image via Mattel / Zhiming Law.
Scott Shaffstall, senior PR manager for vehicles, action figures and licenses at Mattel, added:
NASA’s Perseverance rover, just in its name, goes hand in hand with Hot Wheels’ spirt from ‘Challenge Accepted’. It is closely related to that vision of trying, failing, repeating until done right.
So in our minds, this mission is already a success because it moves the needle and takes us one step closer to Mars.
The space mini collection was brought back in 2021 due to the increased interest of children and the general public in space exploration. The rover clearly fitted and we knew it would land on Mars.
Perseverance is scheduled to land in Jezero Crater on Mars on Feb. 18. Its primary mission is to search for evidence of ancient microbial life. Design-wise, the rover is very similar to the Curiosity rover, which is currently located in Gale Crater, but it has a number of different scientific instruments. While Curiosity focuses on finding evidence of past habitability, which it has done, Perseverance looks for direct evidence of life itself. This will be the first mission since the Viking 1 and 2 landers in the late 1970s / early 1980s to do this.
Diagram of the real Perseverance rover, with the different scientific instruments. Image via NASA.
The Jezero Crater was a lake a few billion years ago and contains rich sediments and clays that could potentially hold evidence of microbial life, if ever there was one. The rover will land near an old river delta in the still visible crater, where a river once flowed into the lake. Jezero Crater is therefore a prime location for the search for life on Mars.
Perseverance even has a companion, a tiny drone-like helicopter called Ingenuity that will attempt to be the first plane to ever fly on Mars. He will fly ahead of the rover, looking for good places for Perseverance to stop and run analyzes and collect samples from rocks and soil. The laboratory onboard the rover can perform substantial analyzes itself, but some samples will also be stored for later return to Earth by another mission. Labs on Earth can then do a much more detailed study of the samples looking for evidence of past life.
Mattel also made a similar toy replica of the still-active Curiosity rover in 2012.
Bottom Line: Mattel, the popular Hot Wheels toy maker, just released a new Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover to help NASA celebrate the landing of its Perseverance rover on Mars on Feb. 18.
Via CollectSPACE
