Perseverance
2021-present
The rover caching Mars samples for return to Earth - and the one that carried the first helicopter to fly on another planet.
Specs
1,025 kg dry mass; landed 18 Feb 2021 in Jezero Crater (an ancient river delta); Ingenuity's first powered flight 19 Apr 2021; Ingenuity completed 72 flights.
Why it matters
Powered, controlled flight in a thin atmosphere 225 million km away - flight dynamics working exactly as physics predicts, on another world.