NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has a hefty job ahead: Once it survives entry into the Martian atmosphere, and executes the descent and landing phases of the mission on Feb. 18, 2021, it will hunt for microscopic life using a precision X-ray device — called PIXL — powered with artificial intelligence (AI), according to a recent blog post on NASA's website.

The X-ray device's name, PIXL, is short for Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry. An instrument the size of a lunchbox, PIXL is placed at the end of Perseverance's 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm, according to the NASA blog post.

The rover's most crucial samples will be collected via a coring drill at the end Perseverance's arm, and then stored in metal tubes — to be placed on the Martian surface where they will await return to Earth via a future mission.