NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Starts New Science Campaign at River Delta | JPL
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MSL - Sol 3447 - MastCam | Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill | Release Date: April 19, 2022
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After collecting eight rock-core samples from its first science campaign and completing a record-breaking, 31-Martian-day (or sol) dash across about 3 miles (5 kilometers) of Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover arrived at the doorstep of Jezero Crater’s ancient river delta April 13. Dubbed “Three Forks” by the Perseverance team (a reference to the spot where three route options to the delta merge), the location serves as the staging area for the rover’s second science expedition, the “Delta Front Campaign.”
“The delta at Jezero Crater promises to be a veritable geologic feast and one of the best locations on Mars to look for signs of past microscopic life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The answers are out there—and Team Perseverance is ready to find them.”
The delta, a massive fan-shaped collection of rocks and sediment at the western edge of Jezero Crater, formed at the convergence of a Martian river and a crater lake billions of years ago. Its exploration tops the Perseverance science team’s wish list because all the fine-grained sediment deposited at its base long ago is the mission’s best bet for finding the preserved remnants of ancient microbial life.
Using a drill on the end of its robotic arm and a complex sample collection system, Perseverance is gathering rock cores for return to Earth—the first part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.
“We’ve been eyeing the delta from a distance for more than a year while we explored the crater floor,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena. “At the end of our fast traverse, we are finally able to get close to it, obtaining images of ever-greater detail revealing where we can best explore these important rocks.”
Caption Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Image Release Dates: April 17-21, 2022
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