This is the new Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover, a detailed 1:64 scale replica model based on the actual rover that will land on Mars on February 18, 2021. Image via CollectSPACE / David Chickering / Mattel.
The disembarkation of the Perseverance rover on Mars is now only a few days away – on February 18, 2021 – and the toy manufacturing company Mattel is contributing to the celebration! The creator of the very popular Hot Wheels series launches a new die-cast scale model – Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover, inspired by the real-life rover – to mark the occasion of its landing.
How to watch live coverage of the perseverance landing
The new Hot Wheels model, a detailed replica of Perseverance on a 1:64 scale (approximately 3 inches or 8 cm long), is part of a new space-themed mini-collection, the first in the last 20 years. It is intended for children three years of age and older and will be sold at a suggested retail price of $ 1.09. We have not yet found a place to buy the new Hot Wheels rover online, but it is supposed to have been available in stores since the end of January. Try searching for “Hot Wheels retailers next to me”.
Manson Cheung, staff sculptor and lead 3D modeler for Mattel Hot Wheels, said in a post on CollectSpace.com:
We want the car to be there so that the children have it in their hands when the real rover lands in February. We want the kids to say, “Oh, I have the rover in my hand and I can see it on Mars,” so there’s a connection for kids, not just with Hot Wheels, but space.
Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover, as seen in its store packaging. Image by Mattel / YongTing Neoh.
According to Mattel’s press release:
Fans of space exploration and Hot Wheels enthusiasts of all ages can recreate the captivating journey of NASA’s Perseverance Rover as they study the Martian landscape and look for signs of ancient microbial life, collecting samples next year.
The Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover pays homage to cutting-edge tools and technologies that will help pave the way for human missions to Mars, studying critical data about the geology and climate of Mars, and ultimately sending Martian samples back to Earth.
Hot Wheels and NASA have a more than 30-year partnership that began in the mid-1980s. The first NASA model made by Hot Wheels was the Sojourner Mars Rover in 1996, part of the company’s stock package at the time. . Then came the Apollo Mission (1998), the Galileo Mission (1999), John Glenn (1999) and JPL Returns to Mars (1999).
Hot Wheels design teams must tour the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to see the spacecraft before it is launched.
Due to the current interest in exploring space among both children and the general public, Hot Wheels has brought back the Space mini-collection for 2021. Needless to say, the Perseverance rover is a perfect addition to that collection.
A closer look at the Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover. Image by Mattel / Zhiming law.
Scott Shaffstall, senior manager of public relations for vehicles, action figures and licenses at Mattel, added:
NASA’s Perseverance Rover, just in its name, goes hand in hand with the Hot Wheels spirit of “Challenge Accepted.” It is very much related to the vision of trying, failing, repeating until it is done correctly.
So, in our minds, this mission is already a success, because it moves the needle and brings us one step closer to Mars.
The mini-space collection was brought back in 2021 due to increased interest from children and the general public in exploring space. The rover was obviously fitting, and I knew it would touch Mars.
Perseverance is scheduled to land in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18. Its main mission is to look for evidence of ancient microbial life. In terms of design, the rover is very similar to the Curiosity rover, currently in Gale Crater, but has several different scientific tools. While Curiosity focuses on finding evidence of habitability from the past, which it did, Perseverance seeks direct evidence of life itself. This will be the first mission since the launch of Viking 1 and 2 in the late 1970s / early 1980s that did this.
The diagram of the real Perseverance rover, which shows the different scientific tools. Image via NASA.
Jezero Crater was a lake a few billion years ago and contains rich sediments and clays that could have clues about microbial life, if it ever existed there. The rover will land near an ancient delta of the river inside the crater, still clearly visible, where a river once emptied into the lake. Jezero Crater is therefore a prime location for the search for Martian life.
Perseverance even has a companion, a small drone-like helicopter called the Ingenuity, which will try to be the first plane to ever fly to Mars. He will fly before the rover, looking for good places for Perseverance to stop and do analysis and collecting rock and soil samples. The rover’s on-board lab can do substantial analysis itself, but some samples will also be stored for later return to Earth by another mission. Laboratories on Earth can then do a much more detailed study of the evidence for evidence of past life.
Mattel also made a similar toy replica of the Curiosity rover still active in 2012.
Bottom line: Mattel, the popular Hot Wheels toy maker, has just launched a new Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover to help NASA celebrate the landing of its Perseverance rover on Mars on February 18th.
Via CollectSPACE
