One year ago, on Thursday 18 February 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars after an interplanetary voyage of some seven months. On board was SuperCam, equipped with a Thales-designed laser, built to analyse the characteristics of Martian rocks and select samples to be brought back to Earth.

The laser has already made a decisive contribution to the initial scientific results from the Mars 2020 mission, notably in proving that there was once a lake in Jezero Crater.

By the end of December 2021, the lasers that Thales built for SuperCam and its predecessor ChemCam had carried out a combined total of one million laser shots on Mars.

© NASA

Click on the links below to find out more about exploration of the Red Planet and the role that Thales technology is playing in it.

• Press release : Perseverance celebrates first birthday and fires one millionth laser shot on Mars | Thales Group 
• The exploration of Mars: taking the next steps | Thales Group
• On Mars, with Perseverance! | Thales Group