Perseverance was timed for a launch opportunity between July 30 and Aug. 15, 2020, when Earth and Mars were in good positions relative to each other for landing on Mars. That is, it took less power to travel to Mars at that time, compared to other times when Earth and Mars are in different positions in their orbits. To keep mission costs and risks as low as possible, the Mars 2020 design is based on NASA's successful Mars Science Laboratory mission architecture, including its Curiosity rover and proven landing system. -copied from nasa :))
>https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-exploration/missions/mars2020/


Something I found interesting:

Plants need sunlight for a process that we call photosynthesis. Plants are what we call autotrophs, meaning they’re self-feeding or self-nourishing. They basically create their own food or energy to grow.

Plants using photosynthesis will take in carbon dioxide from the air, bring up water from the roots, and use sunlight as the energetic source to create sugar from water and carbon dioxide.

Plants contain a molecule called chlorophyll, and the chlorophyll is what absorbs the sunlight. The chlorophyll absorbs red and blue light, and they reflect green light. That’s why if you look at plants, they appear green to our eyes.

That chlorophyll absorbs the sunlight and excites electrons, and the electron is what is used to create the sugars or food for the plant.

Some plants don’t contain chlorophyll. There’s one plant called the ghost plant, and it appears white in appearance. It doesn’t have any chlorophyll. Instead it’s a parasite that leeches off of other plants for nutrition and energy.

Some plants can survive in very low-light conditions. If you think about dark, rainforest canopies, there are plants that grow in that environment. They have evolutionary adaptations to handle these low-light environments, which include making broad, thin leaves to capture as much sunlight as they can.

But basically if a plant is green, it needs sunlight at some point to grow. Otherwise, it can’t survive.

https://morgridge.org/blue-sky/how-do-plants-grow-if-theres-no-sunlight/

Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM 2), also called Mangalyaan-2 ("Mars-craft", from Sanskrit: मंगल mangal, "Mars" and यान yān, "craft, vehicle"), is India's second interplanetary mission planned by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).^[3] In a recorded interview in October 2019, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director indicated possibility of inclusion of a lander^[2] but in an interview to The Times Of India on February 2021 ISRO chairman clarified that the mission will consist only an orbiter.^[6] The orbiter will use aerobraking to lower its initial apoapsis and enter into an orbit more suitable for observations.^[7][8][9] Indian Space Research Organisation planned to launch this mission by 2025.
-copied from unreliable source

The Mars Exploration Program studies Mars as a planetary system in order to understand the formation and early evolution of Mars as a planet, the history of geological processes that have shaped Mars through time, the potential for Mars to have hosted life, and the future exploration of Mars by humans. The strategy has evolved as we have learned more about Mars and as more questions have arisen. We have gone from “Follow the Water” to “Explore Habitability” to “Seek Signs of Life.”-copied from nasa

ATMOSPHERE

Mars’ atmosphere is composed primarily of carbon dioxide (about 96 percent), with minor amounts of other gases such as argon and nitrogen. The atmosphere is very thin, however, and the atmospheric pressure at the surface of Mars is only about 0.6 percent of Earth’s (101,000 pascals).

Scientists think that Mars may have had a thicker atmosphere early in its history, and data from NASA spacecraft (the MAVEN mission) indicate that Mars has lost significant amounts of its atmosphere through time. The primary culprit for Mars’ atmospheric loss is the solar wind!

Understand the Processes and History of Climate on Mars,

Goal 2 concerns fundamental questions about how the climate of Mars has evolved over time to reach the current state, the processes that have operated to produce this evolution, and whether the Martian atmosphere and climate reflect features that are universal to planetary atmospheres. This Goal is further divided into three objectives:
A) Characterize the state of the present climate of Mars' atmosphere and surrounding plasma environment, and the underlying processes, under the current orbital configuration,
B) Characterize the history of Mars’ climate in the recent past, and the underlying processes, under different orbital configurations, and
C) Characterize Mars’ ancient climate and underlying processes.

WHY MARS?

There are several strategic, practical and scientific reasons for humans to explore Mars. Among them we know that Mars is the most accessible place in the solar system. Additionally, exploring Mars provides the opportunity to possibly answer origin and evolution of life questions, and could someday be a destination for survival of humankind.

In the strategic sense, exploring Mars demonstrates our political and economic leadership as a nation, improves the quality of life on Earth, helps us learn about our home planet, and expands US leadership in the peaceful, international exploration of space.