# Bag of Wonder: The Mars Rover > Land on Mars with a real robot explorer and its little helicopter. A free interactive 3D exhibit for children aged 2 to 6, from Curiosity's Child in Troy, Michigan. - Interactive exhibit: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/mars-rover/ - Ages: 2 to 6. The story is pitched at the youngest; the tap cards give older children more to chew on. - Cost: free, with no sign-in, no ads and no tracking. - Works on: phones, tablets and computers, in a web browser. Sound on for the narration. ## What it is Interactive 3D model of the Perseverance Mars rover and the Ingenuity helicopter. A time slider follows the landing (parachute and sky crane), the rover looking around with its mast cameras, Ingenuity's first flight, the robotic arm drilling a rock sample, and a blue sunset on Mars. A second slider pulls the rover's real parts apart with labels; tapping a part shows a child-friendly fact. How to play: press play to hear the story (read aloud in Kelly's voice, with the words on screen). Slide the time slider back and forth to see any part again. Slide "Pull apart" to see what is hidden inside. Tap any glowing button for a fact. ## The story 1. This is Mars, the red planet. A robot explorer called Perseverance is flying there! 2. A giant parachute opens, to slow it down as it falls through the Mars sky. 3. A flying sky crane lowers it gently on ropes, and its six wheels touch the ground. 4. It lifts its tall neck, looks all around with its camera eyes, then rolls off to explore. 5. Under its belly it carried a tiny helicopter called Ingenuity. Gently, down it comes! 6. Whirr! Ingenuity flies! It was the very first helicopter to fly on another planet. 7. Perseverance reaches out its arm, with a shoulder, an elbow and a wrist, just like yours. 8. It drills out a tiny piece of rock and keeps it in a tube. It left some tubes on the ground for a future mission. 9. When the Sun sets on Mars, the sky around it glows blue. Goodnight, Perseverance! ## The parts, and what we tell children These are the tap cards, word for word. - **Mars**: Mars is called the red planet. Its dust is rusty, like an old nail, and that makes it look red. - **The capsule**: The rover rode all the way to Mars folded up inside this capsule. The trip took about seven months. - **The parachute**: The parachute was about 21 metres wide, nearly as long as a tennis court! It slowed the capsule down in the thin Mars air. - **The sky crane**: This flying crane used little rocket engines to hover. It lowered the rover gently on three strong ropes, then flew safely away. - **Wheels**: It has six strong metal wheels. Bendy legs let it roll right over rocks. - **Body**: The rover is about as big as a car. Its body is like a cosy box that keeps its computer brain warm on cold Mars nights. - **Camera eyes (Mastcam-Z)**: These are its eyes, up on a tall neck. They can zoom in, like binoculars. - **SuperCam**: This round eye on top zaps rocks with a tiny laser beam, to find out what they are made of. - **Microphones**: Perseverance can hear Mars! It recorded the first sounds ever heard from Mars. - **Robot arm**: Its arm has a shoulder, an elbow and a wrist, just like yours. At the end it has a drill and cameras. - **Drill and tools**: The arm's hand holds a drill, a camera that sees tiny things up close, and tools that find out what rocks are made of. - **Sample keeper**: Inside the rover's belly, a little robot hand moves the sample tubes around and seals them shut. - **Sample tube**: It saves rock in little tubes, in case people can bring them home to Earth one day. Some were left on the ground for a future mission. - **Power pack**: A special battery turns warmth into electricity, so it keeps working at night. - **Antennas**: They let Perseverance talk to Earth, often by passing messages to spacecraft flying around Mars. - **Name chips**: Three tiny chips carry almost 11 million people's names to Mars. - **Ingenuity**: This little helicopter weighs about as much as a small bag of flour. It flew 72 times, though it was only planned to fly 5! - **Ingenuity's rotors**: Mars air is very thin, so the blades spin super fast, more than 2,000 times a minute. - **Ingenuity's solar panel**: It charged its batteries from sunlight. Under it is a tiny piece of cloth from the Wright brothers' first airplane. - **A Mars rock**: Perseverance landed in a crater that was a lake long, long ago. Its rocks hold clues about that time. ## Getting the science right What we checked, and the myths we steer around: - Perseverance landed on 18 February 2021 in Jezero Crater, the bed of an ancient lake. - Ingenuity first flew on 19 April 2021, the first powered flight on another planet, and made 72 flights. (It stopped flying in January 2024 after blade damage; the story does not need to say so.) - The page does not promise that the rock samples will come home: the plan to collect them is still unsettled. - A blue sunset on Mars is real: fine Martian dust scatters blue light near the Sun. - The rover and helicopter are NASA/JPL 3D models. The parachute, sky crane, ground and sky are built in code to match NASA's descriptions. ## How to use it with children Watch the landing together, then let the child pull the rover apart and find its "eyes", its arm with a shoulder, an elbow and a wrist, and the little helicopter. Ask, "What would you want a robot to look for on Mars?" Ask more than you tell, and let the child drive. Then step away from the screen: build a rover from boxes and bottle tops. Drop a small toy with and without a paper-and-string parachute and see which lands more gently. A few minutes together is plenty. The exhibit is a doorway to the real thing, not a replacement for it. ## Credits and licenses The real scans, maps and photographs belong to their makers, under the licenses below. The words, story and code are Curiosity's Child's. - 3D models of Perseverance and Ingenuity: NASA/JPL-Caltech ([NASA 3D Resources](https://science.nasa.gov/3d-resources/)), shown here for learning; not made or endorsed by NASA - Mars and star maps: [Solar System Scope](https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/) ([CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)) - Ground, rocks, sky, parachute and sky crane built in code - Narrated by Kelly, in her own voice - Real sounds of Mars, recorded by Perseverance's own microphones, and of Ingenuity flying: NASA/JPL-Caltech ([NASA Sounds from Beyond](https://www.nasa.gov/sounds-from-beyond/), public domain, with thanks) - The hum of the trip through space and the celesta tune made for this page ## More on the Space shelf - [The Planets](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/planets/index.md): Fly past the Sun and all eight planets, and peek inside them. - [The Rocket](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/rocket/index.md): Count down, lift off and ride the giant Saturn V all the way to the Moon. - [The Moon](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/moon/index.md): Phases, craters and the far side, then land with Eagle and leave footprints that last for ages. ## About Bag of Wonder A free library of interactive 3D "look inside" science exhibits, made at Curiosity's Child, a licensed home daycare in Troy, Michigan. Secular and science-based; welcoming to all. - All exhibits and how we make them: https://bagofwonder.com/llms.txt - For grown-ups and AI assistants: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/about/ - To cite: "The Mars Rover", Bag of Wonder, Curiosity's Child (Troy, Michigan). https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/mars-rover/