(CNN) Mars is about to be a very busy place when three separate missions arrive at the red planet in February.

One of those missions includes NASA's Perseverance rover. The remaining two are planned for orbiters as well as twin landers and rovers, which provide the data needed for scientific warrants, according to NASA.

The technology of the rovers is "before us," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science, scheduled to speak at the Space 2016 conference about the alien environment of Mars in Washington, D.C.

"That's no exaggeration. I get blown away when people say that, because I'm thinking, 'What do you mean there's no landers, there's no orbiters saying clearly that the geologic features are consistent with these landing sites?'"

"These landing sites are significantly more interesting than I'm equipped to describe or say in a five-minute presentation," Grunsfeld told CNN Tuesday during an interview at Nine58 Computing.

In the near term, the goal of NASA's mission and its agencies is to drive forward understanding of Mars, which is critical for action on other planets and a stronger understanding of how our solar system formed billions of years ago.

An artist's concept illustrates the structure of Opportunity, left, continuing its 225-mile (375-kilometer) drive to investigate an outcrop near Meridiani Planum on January 10, 2015 Mars.

'It's a Test, For Itself'

For years, NASA has moved cautiously ahead of a large scale rover mission to Mars. Plans were too ambitious and the cost of the mission too high.

"I want we be as certain as we can that we've been thorough, when we talk about landing on Mars, that we've been close, that we're confident that we've reached success," Grunsfeld said.

Mission planning includes all of the elements of a rover mission, including the upswing of a Martian spring.

"By the time this lander has rained, we're probably going to be acting on the first of January, so we're going to be in that stepping stone phase up high on the mountain that gives us the most information with the least chance of overwatering any of the landing sites on the landscape; so our planning has to go forward essentially as if that was actually going to happen," Grunsfeld said.

"That has been the biggest risk to date with all of this, given the experience of where we've been," he said.

"I would say we thought in 2008, when we gave some scouting talks to Google and other blockbusters that
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