Mars rover Perseverance replica at the Perot Museum

• The museum also has models of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which is meant to store samples until a possible return to Earth.

State of orbit: NASA has sent about 20 spacecraft to Mars since the 1960s, mapping the planet and detailing the ground using rovers.

• The current mission, Mars Sample Return, is a joint effort with the European Space Agency to bring soil back and study the possibility of ancient life.

Friction point: The program may be on shaky ground. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory laid off about 8% of its workforce in January, citing congressional budgetary concerns.

• NASA will get a minimum of $300 million for the mission in funding approved last week by Congress.
• But that's a sharp drop from the nearly $823 million the space agency spent on the program last year, per the LA Times.

What Perseverance has found: The rover captured a photo of the silhouette of Phobos — one of the red planet's two moons — passing in front of the sun on the 1,056th Martian day of the mission.

• NASA is analyzing such images to track how the moon's orbit is changing.
• The roving scientist has collected 23 Mars rock and soil samples.
• In December, it completed an expedition through a river delta that showed a lake filled Jezero Crater billions of years ago.

If you go: Perseverance will be on display at the Perot through Sept. 2, included in general admission.