"I'm looking forward to, ideally, a very quiet and boring cruise to Mars, as we prepare for the never-boring and always stressful entry, descent and landing on the 18th of February!" The mission, which is scheduled to reach Mars in February next year, will explore the Red Planet through a new rover dubbed as Perseverance.

Humanity's most sophisticated rover launched with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at 7:50 a.m. EDT (4:50 a.m. PDT) Friday on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The launch went off on time at 7:50 a.m. despite a 4.2-magnitude natural disaster 20 minutes before liftoff that shook Southern California, the site of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is overseeing the rover mission. This unbelievable explorer's journey has already required the very best from all of us to get it to launch through these challenging times.

"To actually have really carefully selected samples back at Earth, even though they're small-it's going to really change the way we do business", Georgetown University planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson, tells Nadia Drake at National Geographic. However, we can persevere.

If there are any weather-related issues or technical failures, the mission has until 15 August 2020 to launch this year. The engine fired for a second time and the spacecraft separated from the Centaur as expected. "The spacecraft is in good health and on its way to Mars", NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted. It's bringing 23 cameras, more than any other interplanetary mission, and seven scientific instruments to study the planet and send data back to Earth. We are working to configure the ground stations to match the strength of the spacecraft signal.

"This transient differential tripped an alarm and caused the spacecraft to transition into the standby mode known as "safe mode", Wallace said. The spacecraft will remain in safe mode until it receives new commands from mission control. "Laboratory analysis of such samples on Earth will enable us search for morphological and chemical signatures of ancient life on Mars and also answer key questions about Mars' evolution".

Perseverance has the capability to core into the surface of Mars and collect rock samples Mastcam-Z identifies.

All the materials, designs, and environmental testing of the tires were handled at NASA Glenn's simulated lunar operations lab to ensure they can handle the harsh landscape.

However, since Mars 2020 was too close to Earth and not yet in deep space, the network was not able to properly process the signals sent by the spacecraft.

The journey to Mars will take seven months.

It will also test a method to produce oxygen from the atmosphere, use radar to locate natural resources like subsurface water, deploy advanced zoom cameras to image the landscape in 3D, and measure Mars' unique weather system that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars with a suite of environmental sensors. A technology demonstrator, Ingenuity's goal is a pure flight test it carries no science instruments.

Over 30 sols (31 Earth days), the helicopter will attempt up to five powered, controlled flights. Engineers also upgraded the rover's wheels after rocks damaged the wheels on Curiosity.

This was also the case for the United Arab Emirates Al Amal (Hope) Mars mission, which was successfully sent off on 19 July, and China's orbiter-rover-lander mission Tianwen-1 on 22 July. Just minutes before the Atlas 5 rocket rumbled off the launchpad, a 2.9 magnitude quake rumbled out in California, giving a minor shake to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, the Control Center for the rover. "In the same way, the descendants of Ingenuity and MOXIE will become valuable tools for future explorers to the Red Planet and beyond". But if there was ever a team that could make it happen, it is this one. It is set to land on the Jezero Crater.

DOE has enabled space exploration on almost 30 missions over the past 50 years, including the Curiosity rover which is now on Mars, US Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabaar said. Charged with sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis program.

This illustration depicts NASA's Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars.

As noted several times during the launch broadcast/webcast, the name "Perseverance" embodies NASA's -and humanity's -spirit of overcoming challenges.

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