Perseverance will spend the coming years scouring for signs of ancient microbial life in a mission that will bring back samples to Earth and prepare the way for future human visitors.
Scientists know that 3.5 billion years ago the Jezero crater was the site of a large lake, complete with its own delta.
They believe that while the water may be long gone, somewhere within the crater, or maybe along its 2,000ft-tall rim, evidence that life once existed there could be waiting.
NASA Mars Perseverance - In pictures
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Dr Moore said the mission was “trickier than finding a dinosaur bone” to prove life at a time when Mars was “warmer, wetter and had a thicker atmosphere”.
She continued: “The landing site crater is a really cool and exciting place for the rover to explore because it used to hold a lake and has river deltas that lead to oceans.
“We know river systems, lakes and oceans… are really good environments for life to exist.
“So, if life ever did exist on Mars, this would be a really good place for it to have existed.
“Hopefully, the rocks contain some evidence of that.”
Perseverance will gather rock and soil samples using its drill and will store sample cores in tubes on the Martian surface ready for a return mission to bring around 30 samples to Earth in the early 2030s.
It will also trial technologies to help astronauts make future expeditions to Mars.
These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the atmosphere, identifying other resources such as subsurface water, and improving landing techniques.
They also involve characterising weather and other environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.
Dr Moore said: “Getting samples back to Earth from Mars is kind of a difficult challenge for us. There’s a reason it’s never happened before.”
