NASA's Mars rover has a name – Perseverance.The name was announced by Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia. Zurbuchen was at the school to congratulate seventh grader Alexander Mather, who submitted the winning entry to the agency's "Name the Rover" essay contest.

NASA's Perseverance rover is a robotic scientist 1,043 kilograms. The rover's astrobiology mission includes searching for signs of past microbial life. It also will work on finding the planet's climate and geology, and collect samples of Martian rocks and dust while paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. Perseverance successfully landed on the surface of Mars on 18 February 2021 at 8.55pm GMT. Perseverance has landed in the 45km-wide Jezero Crater.Just like Gale crater, the location for NASA's other current rover Curiosity, Jezero is the site of a suspected ancient lake and river delta.

What will the Perseverance rover do?

Perseverance will search for signs of past and present life on Mars, as well as test out new technologies to aid future human missions to Mars.

There are four key objectives for the new Mars rover:

Determine whether life ever existed on Mars:

Characterise the climate of Mars

Characterise the geology of Mars

Prepare for human exploration of Mars

To complete these scientific goals, the rover has been fitted with several scientific instruments, each designed to perform different experiments or test new technology.

These include an advanced ultraviolet scanner and microscopic camera known as SHERLOC. It will look for the tiniest clues that could help solve the mystery of past life on Mars. It will also carry samples of astronaut spacesuit material, testing to see whether they can withstand the harsh Martian environment.