Online and Museum of Discovery and Science events are scheduled to celebrate the rover landing on Feb. 18.
Published: January 14, 2021
By: Jennifer Jhon
NASA’s newest Mars rover, Perseverance, will touch down on the red planet on Thursday, Feb. 18, at about 3:30 p.m. in an event expected to be watched around the world.
Perseverance is a car-sized rover very similar to its predecessor, Curiosity, which successfully landed on Mars in 2012. Perseverance will be exploring a different area of the planet, though, searching for signs of life in a large-impact crater near the Martian equator called Jezero Crater.
South Florida can tune into the live commentary on nasa.gov/live starting at 2:15 p.m. Feb. 18, and celebrate the landing in person during an event Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale. At the museum, families can craft and launch their own stomp rockets, explore the surface of the red planet and the way meteorites impact geology, and play the rover takeover game to learn how rovers navigate the surface of Mars. All events are free with museum admission. Learn more at mods.org.
You don’t have to wait for the fun to begin! Check out #countdowntomars at mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ to view an interactive Perseverance profile, create a boarding pass to Mars, and print posters, stickers, fact sheets, mission patches, and more.
