NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater on Mars on 18 February 2021, and since then has been scouring the region, learning more about what the ancient planet might have been like.
Scientists now know the Red Planet was warmer and wetter long ago, and even had liquid water flowing in rivers and lakes on its surface.
Water being a key ingredient for life as we know it, that means ancient Mars once at least had the potential to host life.
Perseverance has made some amazing discoveries since landing on Mars (more about this below), but where has it been, where is it now, and where is it going?
NASA has produced an interactive map revealing Perseverance’s journey across the planet so far.
The map trail is punctuated with points showing key moments in its journey, including where it’s gathered samples of Martian soil and rocks, and what these samples contain.
The interactive Mars map has different layers and other elements you can remove and add, to highlight specific information like the names of different regions on Mars.
Another layer, for example, shows the flight path of the Ingenuity helicopter, which achieved the first powered, controlled flight on another world in April 2021.
The interactive map is available here via the NASA website, and above is an animated video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory showing Perseverance’s journey so far.
5 of Perseverance’s biggest hits
Potential signs of ancient microbial life
In September 2025, NASA announced Perseverance rover had found potential ‘biosignatures’, signs of ancient microbial life in Mars rocks.
Perseverance collected the samples from an ancient riverbed in Jezero Crater.
Taken from a rock called ‘Cheyava Falls’ in 2024, the sample contains potential ‘biosignatures’, which means chemicals that could have a biological origin.
While not yet confirmed, it’s a big leap in the search for signs that life may once have existed on the Red Planet.
Signs of a powerful, ancient river
Perseverance also found evidence of an ancient lake and powerful river system in Jezero Crater.
The rover has mapped, sampled and found signs that Jezero Crater once hosted a lake, possibly fed by rivers, with delta deposits, mudstone and carbonate-rich layers.
It found a 250-metre tall mound of sedimentary rock that exhibits a curved layered structure, suggesting water once flowed there.
Perseverance’s discoveries have been key in establishing that Mars once had liquid water flowing on its surface.
Making oxygen on Mars
If humanity is to make the journey to Mars, we’re going to have to work out how to survive on such an inhospitable, barren planet.
Key to that is working out how to allow astronauts to breathe.
Perseverance has been producing oxygen on Mars as part of the MOXIE experiment, which it’s transporting around the planet.
In September 2023, NASA announced that MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), a device about the size of a microwave oven, had generated 122g of oxygen thus far.
That’s twice as much as was originally expected for the instrument.
Discovery of volcanic Martian rocks
NASA scientists were surprised to learn that Perseverance had discovered several types of igenous rock within just one year since its landing.
Samples discovered by the rover include ancient lava flows and rock crystallised from slow-cooling magma.
Igneous rocks contain crystals that allow scientists to learn more about how and when the rocks formed.
What’s more, the rocks showed evidence that they had come into contact with water: further signs that habitable conditions for life were present on ancient Mars.
Giving us ears on Mars
Perseverance has given us amazing vistas of the Martian landscape, but it’s also given us audio recordings revealing what it sounds like on Mars.
NASA says sound on Mars takes longer to reach your ear than it does on Earth.
Sound is also quieter on Mars, and only low-pitched sounds can be heard at a distance.
Luckily, Perseverance was able to capture the sounds of Mars with its two microphones, and beam them back to Earth for us all to have a listen.