NASA Mars Perseverance Rover's View of 'Airey Hill' | JPL

NASA Mars Perseverance Rover's View of 'Airey Hill' | JPL

Captured by the rover’s Mastcam-Z, the images used to create this panorama were acquired on Nov. 3, Nov. 4, and Nov. 6, 2023, the 962nd, 963rd, and 965th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission. 

This is a natural color version.

This is an anaglyph that can be viewed with red-blue 3D glasses.

The journey ahead: A labeled image in the enhanced-color view indicates a possible future track for NASA's Mars Perseverance rover, including its route out of Jezero Crater.

Jezero Crater on Mars formed from an asteroid impact almost 4 billion years ago. After NASA's Perseverance Mars rover landed in February 2021, the mission team discovered the crater floor is made of igneous rock formed from magma underground or from volcanic activity at the surface. They have since found sandstone and mudstone, signaling the arrival of the first river in the crater hundreds of millions of years later. Above these rocks are salt-rich mudstones, signaling the presence of a shallow lake experiencing evaporation. The team thinks the lake eventually grew as wide as 22 miles (35 kilometers) in diameter and as deep as 100 feet (30 meters).

Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

Celebrating 2+ Years on Mars

Mission Name: Mars 2020

Rover Name: Perseverance

Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for return to Earth.

Mars Helicopter (Ingenuity)

Launch: July 30, 2020    

Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Release Date: Dec. 12, 2023

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