[NASA] Perseverance Kicks off the Crater Rim Campaign!

[SpaceMan 0]

Mars: Perseverance (Mars 2020)

• Perseverance Home
• Science
• This is the hidden content, please

  • Sign In
  • or
  • Sign Up
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• The Solar System

3 min read

Perseverance Kicks off the Crater Rim Campaign!

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Mastcam-Z mosaic made of 59 individual Mastcam-Z images showing the area Perseverance will climb in the coming weeks on its way to Dox Castle, the rover’s first stop on the crater rim.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/****/MSSS

Perseverance is officially headed into a new phase of scientific investigation on the Jezero Crater rim!

For the last 2 months, the Perseverance rover has been exploring the Neretva Vallis region of Jezero Crater, where rocks with interesting

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and “

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

” patterns have fascinated us all. Now, the rover has begun its long

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, and is officially kicking off a new phase of exploration for the mission.

Strategic (longer-term) planning is particularly important for the Mars 2020 mission given the crucial role Perseverance plays in collecting samples for

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, and the Mars 2020 team undertakes this planning in the form of campaigns. Perseverance has now completed four such campaigns— the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

campaigns respectively— making the Crater Rim Campaign next in line. Given its broad scope and the wide diversity of rocks we expect to encounter and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

along the way, it may be the most ambitious campaign the team has attempted so far.

The team also has less information from orbiter data to go on compared to previous campaigns, because this area of the crater rim does not have the high-resolution, hyperspectral imaging of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

that helped inform much of our geological unit distinctions inside the crater. This means that

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

multispectral and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

long-distance imaging will be particularly useful for understanding broadscale mineralogical distinctions between rocks as we traverse the crater rim. Such imaging has already proved extremely useful in the Neretva Vallis area, where at

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

we observed rocks that appeared similar to each other in initial imaging, but actually display an Andy-Warhol-esque array of ****** in multispectral products, indicative of varied mineral signatures. 

Our next stop is Dox Castle where Perseverance will investigate the contact between the Margin Unit and the Crater rim, as well as rubbly material that may be our first encounter with deposits generated during the impact that created Jezero crater itself. Later in the campaign, we will investigate other light-toned outcrops that may or may not be similar to those encountered at

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, as well as rocks thought to be part of the regionally extensive olivine-carbonate-bearing unit, and whose relationship to both

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

******** an interesting story to unravel. Throughout this next phase of exploration, comparing and contrasting the rocks we see on the rim to both each other and those previously explored in the mission will be an important part of our scientific investigations.

The whole Mars 2020 science team is incredibly excited to be embarking on the next phase of Perseverance’s adventure, and we expect these results, and the samples we collect along the way, to inform our understanding of not just Jezero itself, but the planet Mars as a whole. We can’t wait to share what we find!

Written by Eleni Ravanis, PhD Candidate and Graduate Research Assistant at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

Aug 27, 2024

Related Terms

• This is the hidden content, please

  • Sign In
  • or
  • Sign Up

Explore More

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

4 min read

Sols 4284–4286: Environmental Science Extravaganza

Article


1 day ago

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

3 min read

Sols 4282-4283: Bumping Away from Kings Canyon

Article


1 day ago

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

2 min read

Sols 4280-4281: Last Call at Kings Canyon

Article


1 week ago

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

All Mars Resources

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up