NASA’s Perseverance rover has been on Mars for almost four years, and it has covered a lot of ground in that time. The mission has reached a significant milestone as the rover has crested the rim of Jezero Crater, where it has been exploring and taking samples since its arrival in February 2021. The mission now continues into a new region of the red planet, which features some of the oldest rocks anywhere in the solar system.
Perseverance has spent the last several months ascending the crater rim after climbing the crater’s ancient river delta. The climb amounted to an impressive 1,640 vertical feet (500 vertical meters), with some sections reaching a 20-degree slope. The slippery Martian fines made the slopes even more treacherous, prompting drivers to try various techniques, such as “switchback driving” and driving backward.
“During the Jezero Crater rim climb, our rover drivers have done an amazing job negotiating some of the toughest terrain we’ve encountered since landing,” said Steven Lee, deputy project manager for Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Perseverance crested the rim at a location NASA has dubbed Lookout Hill. The rover snapped an image (above) to celebrate leaving Jezero behind. The image is smaller than the usual Perseverance snapshot as it was captured with the right-front navigation camera as soon as it created the hill.
Since arriving on Mars, Perseverance has completed four science campaigns: Crater Floor, Fan Front, Upper Fan, and Margin Unit. The mission will now move into its fifth phase, exploration of a region NASA is calling the Northern Rim. The first year of this campaign will feature visits to as many as four interesting geological sites and four miles (6.4 kilometers) of driving.
The first target in the Northern Rim is a location known as Witch Hazel Hill. This rocky outcrop has more than 330 feet of exposed layering, which will allow Perseverance to examine many phases of the planet’s geological history. After this location, the team has already settled on moving to a feature known as Lac de Charmes.
JPL is very anxious to get a look at the strata in this region because of its proximity to Jezero Crater. The rocks inside Jezero filled the space following the impact that excavated it. The rocks around the crater, however, were forced upward from deep inside the planet by that event. Scientists believe these ancient rocks could tell us a great deal about Mars and other rocky planets like Earth in the earliest days of the solar system.
Perseverance was built on the same chassis as Curiosity, the Mars rover that landed way back in 2012 and is still working almost flawlessly. Hopefully, Perseverance is similarly robust as it continues its Martian expedition.
