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.

Yearbook photo of Mastcam-Z Flight Model 1

Mastcam-Z Flight Hardware!

After a more-than-four-year adventure, the flight Mars 2020 rover Mastcam-Z cameras have been fully assembled!

Mastcam-Z stereo testbed team picture mosaic

Mastcam-Z Team Blog: A Special Team Photomosaic

Mastcam-Z will help the Mars 2020 rover explore the surface of Mars. Dozens of amazing scientists and engineers from across the globe contribute to the development of Mastcam-Z. This year, the team photo was taken with our very own Mastcam-Z testbed unit.

Mastcam-Z team blog: We've got flight hardware!

Right after the last Mastcam-Z team meeting a year ago (link here to last two blog posts), our team finalized the design of the cameras, and then the fantastic voyage of creating Martian panoramic zoom cameras began.

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