Steve Jurczyk

We go to that high altitude because it simulates the atmospheric conditions on Mars, mars has a very thin atmosphere. With current space technologies, NASA can land about 1 metric tonne, or 2,200 pounds on the surface of Mars, roughly equivalent to the Curiosity Rover’s weight.

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With this LDSD technology we hope to land about five metric tonnes, that will enable more capable robotic missions.

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It's been a really incredible year for NASA. For all our mission areasbut particularly for human spaceflight, with three launches in 11 months, and it's hard to believe it was just 11 months ago -- last May -- [when] we were in the room -- we were watching the launch from the day and doing the first flight foot race for human exploration mission in just about a decade, and then, we did the Demo-2 mission and it's just been incredible to be a part of it.

Predawn launches are always amazing, it was thrilling to see.

And so, we'll be scheduled to go on Friday.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration, the mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.