On February 16, 2021, a panel of mission experts gathered to talk about the activities of the Perseverance rover on Mars. The panel explained how Perseverance will search for signs of ancient microbial life and collect rock samples with the help of instruments such as SHERLOC. In addition to searching for signs of past life, the rover will also provide critical data on Mars’ geology and climate. View the video of the presentation above, or at the NASAJPL YouTube page.

Speakers:

  • Lori Glaze, director, NASA’s Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
  • Ken Williford, Perseverance deputy project scientist, JPL
  • Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance deputy project scientist, JPL
  • Luther Beegle, principal investigator, Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument, JPL
  • Jim Bell, principal investigator, Mastcam-Z instrument, Arizona State University, Tempe
  • Sylvestre Maurice, deputy principal investigator, SuperCam instrument, Institut de Recherche Astrophysique et Planétologie, Toulouse, France

On February 18, 2021, NASA will provide multiple feeds of live landing coverage of the Perseverance Mars Rover, leading up to the rover’s landing at approximately 3:55 p.m. EST.

View the NASA TV schedule of events at: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive