Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

The dream is Perseverance will stumble across some fossil evidence of micro-organisms during its mission. Such a discovery is unlikely to be of the slam-dunk variety, which is why Perseverance will package up its most interesting rock finds for later missions to retrieve and bring back to Earth for more detailed study.

This issue whether there was ever life at Mars is really fundamental, believes Perseverance's chief scientist, Ken Farley, and has profound implications for our understanding of the possibility of life elsewhere in the galaxy, or indeed the Universe.

"It's the question of how ubiquitous life might be beyond Earth," he told us. Is it a case that if you build the right environment, life will come? Or is it like there has to be a "magic spark" for it to happen? And the answer to that question is really important, because we now now that there are billions, literally billions, of planets out there beyond Earth.

"What is the likelihood that life doesn't exist out there? Well, it seems small to me. But all of it hinges on how ubiquitous the spark is that gets life going. Is it super rare? Or is it - you build it and it will come. And I think this is why we need to go to a place that we have every reason to believe was habitable, and actually look to see whether it was inhabited."

Image source, Nasa

Perseverance is carrying onboard the names of 10,932,295 people from around the world who wrote in for Nasa’s “Send Your Name to Mars" campaign.

The names have been stenciled by electron beam onto three fingernail-sized silicon chips that were attached to an aluminum plate on the Mars rover.

In more local news, Krispy Kreme is offering a free red-frosted “Mars donut” to the nearly 11 million Martian "explorers" who can show their Nasa-issued Mars 2020 Perseverance “boarding pass”.

"The landing of Perseverance on Mars will be an epic and important achievement," said Krispy Kreme spokesman Dave Skena.

"So, we’re celebrating the best way we know how: with an amazing new doughnut discovery right here on earth."

Image source, NASA

Image source, NASA

First things first. You can read our lowdown on Nasa's Perseverance mission here. From where to watch live television coverage, to how the rover will look for signs of life, we've got it covered.

If you've noticed something familiar about this rover, you're not alone. In terms of its overall design, Perseverance is very similar to Curiosity, which landed at Mars' Gale Crater in 2012.

But the science instruments are different and Perseverance will have the ability to drill out intact cores of Martian rock. These cylindrical cores, about the size of a piece of chalk, will go into sample tubes so that they can be returned to Earth for study in coming years.

Key questions about Perseverance

Image source, NASA

Welcome to our live coverage of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars. After a seven-month, 470-million-km journey from Earth, the Nasa robot is set for the most challenging step in its mission so far.

It will hurtle towards the surface at 20,000km/h before slowing its descent with parachutes and a rocket-powered "jetpack" that will use a tether to lower the rover onto the surface for a soft landing.

Nasa engineers half-jokingly call this the "seven minutes of terror".

If successful, Perseverance will begin a search for past signs of extra-terrestrial life in Jezero Crater, which hosted a lake billions of years ago.

We'll bring you regular updates as Perseverance attempts to stick its landing and become the next Nasa rover to explore Mars.