Perseverance Rover Mastcam-Z Stories

The Planetary Society is an education and outreach partner for the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA's Perseverance rover. Former Planetary Society President Jim Bell is the instrument's principal investigator and Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts is the EPO lead.

Mastcam-Z is a color stereo camera system with a zoom capability never included on a Mars rover. It will produce stunning, 3-D images from the surface, and includes a range of filters carefully selected for geologic studies. The zoom capability will help in the planning of drives for the rover.

Recent stories from the Mastcam-Z team

The Mastcam-Z Filter Set

Learn how NASA's Perseverance rover will see the colors of Mars.

First Light photo for the Mastcam-Z Engineering Qualification Model

Engineering Qualification Model confirms performance of the Mastcam-Z!

Just this past week, assembly of the Mastcam-Z EQM was completed, and we saw for the first time what one of our Mars zoom cameras would really look like.

NASA Perseverance rover (artist's concept)

Mastcam-Z team blog: Landing sites

It takes years to decide where a Mars rover is going to land. Members of NASA's Mars 2020's camera team describe their participation in the process.

Mastcam-Z team blog: Preparing for five-hour operations

It takes hundreds of scientists and engineers many years to design and build just one instrument for a Mars mission. In the first Mastcam-Z team blog post, we'll talk about the special challenges we expect for Mars 2020 operations, and how we're planning to overcome them.

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