NASA’s newest Mars car will touch down on the Red Planet less than 100 days from now.
The life-hunting Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, which launched on July 30, is scheduled to land inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater on the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2021 — just 97 days from Friday (Nov. 13).
The home stretch will be busy for the car-size robot’s handlers.
“While we call the six-and-a-half-month trip from Earth to Mars ‘cruise, I assure you there is not much croquet going on at the lido deck,” mission project manager John McNamee, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement.
“Between checking out the spacecraft and planning and simulating our landing and surface operations, the entire team is on the clock, working toward our exploration of Jezero Crater,” McNamee said.