Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago

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Did you know that one of the two new rovers about to land on Mars has a zoom camera and microphones, shoots lasers, is left-handed, and carries a helicopter on its belly? Or that China's 3-in-1 Mars spacecraft includes an orbiter, a lander, and a rover? Or why Mars geologists think Jezero crater might be the best place to look for signs of ancient Martians?

In this documentary, first presented in October at the ScienceWriters2020 conference, experts on the space missions now arriving at Mars explain what these state-of-the-art interplanetary robot explorers can do—and what they hope to find. Watch this before you tune in for the exciting landing of NASA's Perseverance mission on February 18!

FEATURED SPEAKERS
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Nina Lanza
Team lead, Space and Planetary Exploration, Los Alamos National Laboratory

"Three New Missions to Mars: Capabilities of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover"
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Katie Stack Morgan
Research scientist and Mars 2020 deputy project scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

"Searching for Biosignatures of Past Life on Mars"
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Andrew Jones
Freelance space journalist, SpaceNews and the Planetary Society

"Tianwen-1: What We Know about China's First Mars Orbiter, Lander, and Rover"