The rover will land on Tuesday, February 18th. In about seven minutes, the spacecraft slowed to about 12,100 miles (19,500 kilometers) at the top, occurring about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the touchdown in an area called Jejaro Crater in the Martian atmosphere.

Perseverance will search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, collect Martian rocks and regoliths (broken rocks and dust) and identify the planet's biology and climate, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.