See The Creation of NASA’s Perseverance Rover in ‘Built For Mars’

On July 30, 2020, an Atlas rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Atop this rocket was the Perseverance rover. Almost 7 months later, the Perseverance will land on the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021. However, the efforts for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission began eight years ago with a task to do something that had never been done before.

Built for Mars is a documentary that take viewers through the process of creating and building the Perseverance rover and getting it ready for this important mission. It takes you from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) at Cal Tech in Pasadena, California all the way to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Premiering Thursday, February18th at 8pm ET/ 7pm CT on the National Geographic Channel, this special broadcasts on the same day that the Perseverance rover lands on Mars.

Perseverance is scheduled to land on the Jezero Crater. Containing the geological features of an ancient river delta, it is believed that this crater was a lake of water 3 billion years ago. Therefore, it is a good place to begin to look for evidence that life may have existed on Mars at one time. Perseverance and Mars 2020 is just part…