At JPL, Perseverance Rover’s Twin Helps Sibling on Mars Mission

The Earth-bound twin of the Perseverance Mars Rover is pictured in an assembly room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena in an undated photo provided by JPL.

As the NASA Mars 2020 mission rockets toward the Red Planet to deposit the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-built Perseverance Mars Rover, its Earthbound twin is gearing up for a less-glamorous, but still important, role in the mission.

The Vehicle System Test Bed, or VSTB, has been dubbed OPTIMISM, according to JPL.

It’s “a full-scale engineering version of the Mars-bound rover,” the institution said in a written statement. “It is used to test hardware and software before the commands are sent up to the Perseverance rover.”

It is equipped with all the instruments and computers that its space-faring twin carries.

“After taking its first drive indoors, the VSTB rover took a spin in the Mars Yard, a dirt field which simulates the Red Planet’s surface,” the statement said.

Perseverance is scheduled to touch down on Mars on Feb. 18.

More information on the mission is available online at nasa.gov/perseverance.