Mars 2020

Entry, Descent and Landing

Pre-landing visualization

This is a real-time simulation of the planned entry, descent, and landing of the Mars 2020 mission, which will land the Perseverance rover at Jezero crater on Mars on February 18th, 2021. On the day of the event itself, the timeline may be slightly different, but this represents the expected set of events using the best available engineering data. The time of the events shown is in Earth Receive Time, which is eleven minutes and 22 seconds after the events happen on Mars. That is how long it takes a radio signal to travel from Mars to Earth to confirm each event.

We recommend using a broadband internet connection, and to use the newest hardware/software available for the best performance. We recommend using the Chrome browser on most operating systems.

Once the Perseverance rover lands on Mars, you can click the “Replay” button to start again at the beginning. If you are watching it live on February 18th, 2021, a button will say "LIVE” and will either show a black dot or a green dot next to it. A black dot means you are not exactly lined up perfectly, so you would simply click the button to go to real-time. When clicked, the button turns green, and the green text "LIVE" will also appear in the phase info text as well. If you fast-forward or rewind the button will change again.

Laptop/desktop

The settings button on the bottom right allows you to change a number of things. First, the user can change from the English system to the metric system, i.e., miles to kilometers . The “eye” icon will remove the interface, except for the settings button. Click on the settings button and select the same button to bring back the full user interface. Next up are the controls for zooming in and out, followed by a “floodlight” lighting option . The next control will toggle the camera views. Click on to have the program automatically change the camera angles to the best view of each phase. Click on to maintain control of the view. If you are in the "Auto" mode, you will automatically leave that mode if you manually change the view with your mouse. Finally, you can go fullscreen with the last button.

To control time, scroll up and down on the description text itself to advance to the next or previous stage. You can also change the time rate using the fast-forward and rewind buttons on the bottom center of the screen. To zoom in and out, either use the and buttons on the bottom right or use the “W” and “S” keys, or use the scroll wheel of your mouse. To track around the spacecraft (yaw/heading), use the “A” and “D” keys. To rotate (roll) the view, use the “Z” and “C” keys. To pitch, use the "Q" and "E" keys. You can also just click and drag with your mouse.

Mobile/tablet

Use your finger to swipe up or down on the text description to advance to the next stage or go back to the previous stage. When you tap above the text area, you can hold down your finger to move around the spacecraft. You can also pinch to zoom. You can switch to the time controls by tapping on the icon, which will remove the phase info and bring up the time controls, replay button, and the settings button. This screen will also display the title of the current phase. The settings button for the mobile version has three slider bars as an icon , and the function is the same as described above. To switch back to the full information screen, tap on the icon.

Landscape mode is supported; turn your phone sideways to change the view.

Additional resources