Perseverance launch — with a helicopter aboard
Perseverance left for Mars on 30 July 2020 carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, which made the first powered flight on another planet and went on to fly 72 times.
Available views: Orbit ✓ · Sky — (not visible in the sky)
The story
On 30 July 2020 the Mars rover Perseverance lifted off from Florida on an Atlas V rocket, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tucked under its belly was Ingenuity, a small helicopter weighing 1.8 kg. The air on Mars is only about one percent as thick as Earth’s, and Ingenuity was a test craft built to find out whether a helicopter could fly there at all. The goal was just five flights.
Perseverance landed in Mars’s Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021. As it came down, it photographed the ground, compared the pictures with a map stored on board, and chose a safe spot with no boulders or steep slopes by itself. This method is called terrain-relative navigation. The landing was filmed by cameras on the spacecraft and sent back to Earth, so people could watch a Mars landing on video for the first time.
On 19 April 2021 Ingenuity rose 3 m into the air, hovered for 39.1 seconds and landed again. It was the first powered flight on another planet. People compared the moment to the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903, and Ingenuity actually carried a small piece of fabric from the Wright brothers’ aeroplane. The five planned flights grew to 72, covering about 17 km in total, until a broken rotor blade ended the mission in January 2024.
Perseverance has been sealing samples of Martian rock and soil in small tubes. Those tubes were originally meant to be brought to Earth later by other spacecraft. Another instrument on the rover, MOXIE, ran sixteen tests pulling oxygen out of the Martian air, which is mostly carbon dioxide. The orbit view replays the roughly seven-month journey from Earth to Mars, from the July 2020 launch to the February 2021 arrival.
Mission goals
The samples Perseverance collected are key material for learning whether Mars ever had life. Instruments carried on a rover must be small and light, which limits the tests they can run. If the samples reached large laboratories on Earth, scientists could measure the ages of the rocks precisely and study their tiniest structures. However, the joint NASA–ESA Mars Sample Return plan was cancelled in 2026, so when and how the samples might come home is still undecided.
Ingenuity showed that aircraft can fly on another world. That experience is a valuable reference for future flying explorers. NASA, for example, is preparing Dragonfly, a drone-like lander due to launch in 2028 and reach Saturn’s moon Titan in 2034.
MOXIE was the first proof that some of what people need on Mars could be made there. A rocket leaving Mars to come home needs a great deal of oxygen to burn its fuel. If that oxygen, and oxygen for astronauts to breathe, could be made on Mars, tens of tonnes less cargo would have to be carried from Earth.
Mission chronology and background
Jezero Crater held a lake about 3.5 billion years ago. A river flowing into it laid down sand and mud and built a delta that still survives. If life ever existed there, traces were likely to be kept in such layers, which is why the site was chosen. The rover began on the crater floor, studied the delta in 2022 and 2023, and since late 2024 has been climbing and exploring the crater rim.
The Mars Sample Return plan originally aimed to bring samples to Earth around 2033. But the cost grew to an estimated 11 billion dollars and the return date looked likely to slip to 2040, so the plan went under review in 2024 and was finally cancelled in 2026. Meanwhile, China is separately pursuing Tianwen-3, which aims to launch in 2028–2029 and bring Martian samples back in 2031.
Perseverance carries a chip engraved with 10.9 million names and a plaque honouring COVID-19 health workers. The pattern on its landing parachute hid the phrase “Dare Mighty Things” in binary code. After landing, the rover’s microphone also recorded and sent back the first sounds of wind on Mars. Because the Martian air is thin, sounds there are quieter than on Earth, and high notes fade away quickly.
Where to see it — sky and simulator
Perseverance is near Jezero Crater (18.4° N, 77.5° E) and cannot be seen from Earth. Instead, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which circles Mars, now and then photographs the rover and Ingenuity from above. In the orbit view, the replay draws the transfer path linking Earth and Mars from the July 2020 launch to the February 2021 arrival, and it can be compared side by side with the path of Curiosity, launched in 2011.
Mars itself is easy to see with the naked eye. Select Mars in the sky view for its height, direction and rise time from your location and its size in a telescope. The next opposition, when Mars comes near Earth and is visible all night, is in February 2027, when it brightens to about magnitude −1.
See this for yourself — replay the moment in the orbit view
FAQ
How many times did Ingenuity fly?
It flew 72 times, far beyond the five-flight goal, covering about 17 km in total, until a broken rotor blade ended its mission in January 2024.
When will the samples come to Earth?
That is undecided. The NASA–ESA Mars Sample Return plan was cancelled in 2026 because of its cost.
What did MOXIE do?
It ran sixteen tests making oxygen from Mars’s mostly carbon-dioxide air, showing that oxygen can be produced on Mars.
How is it different from Curiosity?
It uses nearly the same body but adds a sample-storing system, terrain-relative landing, a helicopter and the oxygen experiment.
Related
- Curiosity launch — Mars rover
- Tianwen-3 samples return
- Dragonfly lands on Titan
- Perseverance — object index
- Mars — object index
Times and figures are approximate — verify with official sources when planning travel. Simulation uses J2000 mean elements.