Mars 2020 mission helicopter Ingenuity. The Mars 2020 mission, part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, launched on 30th July 2020. It will land on Mars on 18th February 2021. Ingenuity is a technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars. The mission also includes the Perseverance rover. The rover will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. Photographed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA, on 14th February 2019.