NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Andrew Bodrov

You Are Now Arriving at ‘Pico Turquino’

The panorama is made up of 97 individual Mastcam-Z images stitched together. The images were taken on Sol 1337 (November 23, 2024).

Perseverance has been continuing its sightseeing tour of the Jezero crater rim, with this week’s travel itinerary including an up-close look at “Pico Turquino.” Here, the team hopes to investigate the history recorded in this approximately 200-meter-long region (about 656 feet) of exposed outcrop. Such rocks may reveal clues of ancient geologic processes including those that predate or are related to the violent impact that formed Jezero crater. Recently, the team has been studying a number of outcropping ridges during the rover’s ascent of the crater rim, with the goal of characterizing the compositional diversity and structure of these exposed rocks.

After paralleling Pico Turquino about 70 meters (about 230 feet) to the south last week, the team planned a close approach over the weekend that positioned the rover at the southwestern extent of the ridge. Prior to the 107-meter drive (about 351 feet) on sol 1332, the team planned two sols of targeted remote sensing with Mastcam-Z and SuperCam to investigate local regolith and conduct long distance imaging of a steep scarp and 20-meter (about 66 feet) diameter crater to the northwest. The successful approach drive on sol 1332 allowed the team to come into Monday’s planning with the focus of assessing outcrop amenable for proximity science and repositioning the rover for upcoming abrasion activities.

Following our abrasion activities at Pico Turquino, the rover will be hitting the road en route to its next science stop at “Witch Hazel Hill.” Orbital views of Witch Hazel Hill suggest the area may contain layered and light-toned bedrock that likely record important information of the planet’s ancient climate. Prior to arriving at Witch Hazel Hill, the rover plans to pass through a high point known as Lookout Hill that will afford the team incredible views looking back into the crater, as well as get a glimpse westward of terrain far beyond Jezero.

Written by Bradley Garczynski, Postdoctoral Scientist at Western Washington University

Andrew's YouTube 360 (8k) version of this panorama can be found here - LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-YSu1cPDQ

Stunning landscapes and distant wreckage viewed from on high

Mars Guy - Episode 195

When Perseverance reached the crest of the rim of Jezero crater, it stopped to look back across terrain it had spent nearly four years exploring. This gave it an unprecedented view all the way to the distant wreckage of the spacecraft that delivered it.

Mastcam-Z images processed by Neville Thompson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwWBZl7YMFM

Mars scientists have recently marked a new year on the Red Planet, a milestone that occurs every 687 days. Because the Martian new year coincides with spring in the planet’s northern hemisphere, it’s a time of lots of activity — avalanches, exploding jets of gas, and more. JPL research scientist Serina Diniega explains some of the changes to the Martian surface that scientists can track with spacecraft like NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

Circling the Red Planet since 2006, MRO carries a suite of science instruments that collect data on the planet’s surface and atmosphere. Among them is its HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, which captured many of the detailed views seen here.

For more information on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, visit: science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter

Video credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech; north polar cap image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS; HiRISE images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona; erupting jets artist’s concept: ASU/Ron Miller. Stock footage provided by Pavel_dp/Pond5.

Full credits to NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M Gill

Kevin shared this several years ago, I share it every year since :)

Views from the surface of Mars generally look Earth-like because Mars is a terrestrial planet, that is, it’s made of silicate rocks like Earth and it also has an atmosphere. But that atmosphere takes on an alien look after the Sun goes down.

New vista after a 24.6 m / 81 ft drive to the north on sol 1363 (December 20, 2024). Roughly processed 4-tile L-NavCam looking NbW from site 64. 2278. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Th rover drove north and i fixed a typo. Not much else to it

Lots of good links in this update :)

Drive to the North on Sol 1362.

This post-drive L-NavCam is roughly assembled / cropped from 6 tiles, is looking South

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sol 1361: WATSON Camera (Raw colour) acquired on Dec. 18, 2024 at the local mean solar time of 12:42:15.

Interestingly the patch shows no tool marks from the abrasion bit

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

LINK: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/SIF_1361_0787763303_855EBY_N0641568SRLC00643_0000LMJ

Meanwhile on Mars!

A new abrasion patch, the first outside of Jezero crater. Imaged during Sol 1360 (December 17, 2024) using one of the rover's NavCam's (roughly processed / cropped). The rover is located at site 64.1568. For scale the patch has a diameter of 2 inches (50 mm). Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

It has a number of stitching errors, but provides a good view of the rover's deck.

Assembled in MS-ICE

Credits NASA/JPL-Caltech

Thanks to Paul I was able to add a lot of new names to the list and correct earlier mistakes

Awaiting drive data and map. (still waiting for the same from yestersol's drive (1358), but that should catch up soon as that drive was during the weekend.

I'll add the drive path etc in the comments to this post and the last drive after JPL release it.

This is a post drive roughly processed 4-tile L-NavCam from site 64.1568.

I'm assuming we're close to the next science waypoint at 'Witch Hazel Hill'

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

One of the sol 1358 post-drive 4-tile NavCams (roughly processed)

Details of the drive will be added in the comment of this post as soon as I get them, but it appears to be close to 100 meters with a drive downslope of close to 3.5 meters

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Episode 193

After nearly four years exploring inside Jezero crater, Perseverance has now climbed to the top of the crater rim, revealing dramatic new landscapes beyond. These include two distant mountains pulled apart by an enormous rift.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Kevin M. Gill

Date Taken on 13 December 2024, 07:31:14

Source Mars2020 - Sol 1356 - MastCam-Z

Author Kevin M. Gill

Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Original MastCam-Z image

Now serving:

• some hefty, rounded-off dark chunks, enough to embarrass even the most hardcore chocolate-chip lover
• a small helping of greasy, streaky, shinier light-toned bits interspersed, for flavor
• all set into that classic cream-colored background we've come to know and love, and available in a nice, flat boulder-sized outcrop, probably within reach of the rover's instrument arm.

After a long hike, this is the perfect spot for a picnic.

Another map is nearing its end

This press conference was recorded at AGU's 2024 Annual Meeting on 12 December 2024.

The week of AGU 2024, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover will likely reach the highest point in its mission. Summiting the rim of Jezero Crater (it took three months of careful navigation – and a lot of slipping and sliding in Martian regolith) has been a goal of the Perseverance science team since the mission was conceived. Why? According to the mission’s project scientist Ken Farley: “The view will be great, but the science results promise to be even greater.”

The impact of that created Jezero Crater billions of years ago excavated Martian bedrock – placing 10 trillion tons of the Red Planet’s insides on and near the newly excavated crater’s rim. These rocks offer up a geologic bonanza from the basement of time as they’re not only the oldest rocks of the mission, but among the oldest in the solar system. During its exploration of the crater rim, the Perseverance science team expects to encounter a wide diversity of samples coming from different locations and depths of the Jezero region.

The Perseverance AGU 2024 briefing will include early science results from the crater’s rim, plans for exploration of the crater’s rim, and the latest science from the floor of Jezero Crater.

The briefing will also highlight a novel AI application – how Perseverance’s “Simple Planner” tool enables the rover to autonomously reschedule activities in response to changes in environmental conditions (such as Mars being warmer than expected, or rover energy/State of charge being higher than expected) as well as execution variations (e.g. activities taking longer or shorter than expected or failing). The energy savings created by Simple Planner translates into more time for science collection and significantly longer drives.

Panelists:

Lindsay Hays, NASA HQ 
Ken Farley, Caltech 
Candice Bedford, Purdue 
Justin Maki, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This graph shows the relative elevation of various sampling sites visited by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Colored dots along the line represent targets where data was collected by the rover's SuperCam laser instrument; the colors correspond to different regions within Jezero Crater, which are labeled. The black diamonds represent locations where the rover's abrasion tool was used to collect data on rock composition. The x-axis indicates the sol, or day, of the rover's mission, and the y-axis shows elevation in meters. Jezero Crater sits about 8,530 feet (2,600 meters) below reference level (the equivalent for "sea level" on Mars, which does not have any oceans), which is why the numbers appear to be decreasing as Perseverance is gaining elevation.

The dotted horizontal lines represent estimated levels of ancient, now-dry lakes. Jezero Crater was filled by water for much of its history; this lake environment could have preserved signs of microbial life, if any formed here billions of years ago.

At the far right of the graph, the line suddenly jumps, indicating a sharp elevation gain, showing how quickly the rover has ascended toward the crater rim.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/DLR/PIA26476

Credits - NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/J. Roger (landru79)

Includes the notional path for the next several years where it will explore outside the crater