Northrop Grumman provided mission-critical components on the 2003 Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers and the 2012 Curiosity rover.
Mars 2020 will use a landing system similar to the one used by the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars in 2012.
Perseverance is based on the Curiosity rover platform, and Curiosity has been on Mars since August 2012.
The Mars 2020 rover Perseverance is based on the Curiosity rover and carries about 50% more surface payload than Curiosity.
NASA announced in December 2012 its intent to proceed with a rover similar in design to Curiosity for launch in 2020 to advance decadal survey science priorities.
Mars 2020 leverages the design and the skycrane landing system developed for Curiosity.
The Tianwen-1 rover is designed to last 90 Mars days and carries six instruments including a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy experiment similar to Curiosity’s.
Mars 2020 is closely modeled on the Mars Science Laboratory mission and its Curiosity rover and will land in a similar fashion while incorporating added landing system features for more precise targeting of the landing site.
The fiscal year 2021 budget request proposed cutting funding for the Curiosity rover by more than 20% from 2019 levels to $40,000,000.
A fiscal year 2020 budget cut forced the Curiosity mission to operate at 14 shifts per month.
NASA’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal included plans to end operations of the Mars Odyssey orbiter, which also serves as a communications relay for the InSight lander and the Curiosity rover.
The fiscal year 2021 budget request would reduce Curiosity rover funding from $51,100,000 in 2019 to $40,000,000 in 2021 with no funding projected for Curiosity beyond 2021.
The selected landing zone covering Isidis Planitia stretches to the western edge of the Elysium Mons region between the landing sites of Curiosity and Viking 2.
Mars 2020 is based on the Curiosity rover design and will use the same skycrane landing system.