NASA’s Perseverance Rover launches its first scientific marketing campaign on Mars – with that?

From NASA

Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z imaging system captured this 360-degree panorama at the Van Zyl Overlook, where the rover was parked during the Ingenuity helicopter’s first flights. The 2.4 billion pixel panorama consists of 992 images stitched together. Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS

The six-wheeled scientist sets out south to explore the lake bed of the Jezero crater in search of traces of ancient microbial life.

On June 1, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover started the scientific phase of its mission when it left the “Octavia E. Butler” landing site. Until recently, the rover went through system tests or commissioning and supported the months-long flight tests of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.

During the first few weeks of this first scientific campaign, the mission team will head to a low-lying vantage point from which the rover can examine some of the oldest geological features of the Jezero crater and the rover’s final auto-navigation and sampling systems capabilities.

This image, looking west towards the Séítah geological unit on Mars, was captured by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter during its sixth flight on May 22, 2021 from a height of 10 meters. Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech

By the time Perseverance completed its commissioning phase on June 1, the rover had already tested its oxygen-generating MOXIE instrument and performed the Ingenuity helicopter’s technology demonstration flights. Its cameras had taken more than 75,000 images, and its microphones had recorded the first soundtracks from Mars.

“We’ll put the rover’s start-up and landing pad in our rearview mirror and we’re on our way,” said Jennifer Trosper, Perseverance project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Over the next few months, Perseverance will explore an area of ​​1.5 square kilometers [4-square-kilometer] Crater floor. From this place the first samples from another planet will be collected, which will be brought back to earth from a future mission. “

The mission’s scientific objectives are to study the Jezero region to understand the geology and past habitability of the area around the region, and to look for evidence of ancient microscopic life. The team will identify and collect the most compelling rock and sediment samples that a future mission could salvage and bring back to Earth for more detailed study. Perseverance will also take measurements and test technologies to aid future human and robot exploration of Mars.

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance used its Mastcam-Z imaging system to capture this 360-degree panorama of “Van Zyl Overlook,” where the rover was parked when the Ingenuity helicopter made its first flights. The 2.4 billion pixel panorama consists of 992 merged individual images. Images were taken between April 15 and April 26, 2021 or the 53rd and 64th Martian days or sols of the mission.Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS

Unique geology

Spanning hundreds of sols (or Martian days), this first scientific campaign pursues all of the mission’s scientific objectives as the rover explores two unique geological units that contain the deepest (and oldest) layers of Jezero’s exposed bedrock and other fascinating geological features can be found found. The first unit called “Crater Floor Fractured Rough” is the crater-filled floor of Jezero. The adjacent unit, named “Séítah” (“in the middle of the sand” in Navajo language) has a fair amount of Martian bedrock, but is also home to ridges, layered rocks, and sand dunes.

“In order to do justice to both units in the allotted time, the team developed the Mars version of an old car club-style map,” said Kevin Hand of JPL, astrobiologist and co-lead of this science with Vivian Sun Campaign. “We’ve planned our route, complete with optional turns and marked areas of interest and potential obstacles on our way.”

Most of the challenges along the way are expected in the form of sand dunes, which are located within the mitten-shaped Séítah unit. To overcome it, the Rover team decided that Perseverance would mainly ride either on the Crater Floor Fractured Rough or along the boundary line between it and Séítah. When the opportunity calls for it, Perseverance will perform a “toe dive” into the Séítah unit to find a specific area of ​​interest.

The aim of the campaign is to find out which four locations in these units best tell the story of the early environment and the geological history of the Jezero crater. When the science team decides a location is just right, a sample or two are taken.

“If we start with the Crater Floor Fractured Rough and Seitah geological units, we can begin our exploration of Jezero from the very beginning,” said Hand. “This area was under at least 100 meters [328 feet] Water 3.8 billion years ago. We don’t know what stories the rocks and layered outcrops will tell us, but we look forward to getting started. “

The first science campaign will be completed when the rover returns to its landing site. By this time, Perseverance will have covered between 2.5 and 5 kilometers and up to eight of Perseverance’s 43 sample tubes could be filled with Martian rocks and regolith (debris and dust). Next, Perseverance will travel north and then west to reach the site of its second scientific campaign: the Jezero delta region. The delta is made up of the fan-shaped remains of the confluence of an ancient river and a lake in the Jezero crater. The site is possibly particularly rich in carbonates – minerals that preserve fossilized traces of ancient life on earth and can be linked to biological processes.

The start of Perseverance’s first science campaign also marks a change in the team: On June 7th, Jennifer Trosper became the new project manager of the mission. She succeeds Matt Wallace, who serves as the JPL’s Assistant Director of Planetary Sciences.

“From Sojourner to Spirit and Opportunity to Curiosity to Perseverance, Matt has played a key role in the design, construction and operation of every Mars rover NASA has ever built,” said Trosper. “And while the project loses a great leader and trusted friend, we know Matt will continue to make great things for the planetary science community.”

This annotated image of Jezero Crater shows the routes for Perseverance’s first scientific campaign (yellow diamond) as well as the second (light yellow diamond). Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona

More about the mission

A major goal of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including looking 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 rocks and regolith.

Subsequent NASA missions, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), would send spaceships to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and bring them back 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 human exploration of the red planet.

JPL, managed for NASA by Caltech of Pasadena, California, built and managed the Perseverance rover.

More about endurance:

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

nasa.gov/performance

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