NASA personnel are lionise the news that its Perseverance scouter has lastly reached the top of the Mars ’ Jezero Crater brim after a challenging climb that took three - and - a - half month to complete .
The six - wheeled bird of passage ascend 1,640 feet ( 500 meters ) and made stop along the means to conduct various scientific discipline observance as it continues its search for signs of ancient microbial life on the red planet .
“ During the Jezero Crater rim rise , our rover driver have done an awesome line of work negotiating some of the toughest terrain we ’ve come across since landing,”said Steven Lee , deputy project coach for Perseverance at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) in Southern California . “ They developed innovative approaches to overcome these challenge — even tried drive backwards to see if it would help — and the roamer has occur through it all like a champ . ”
Lee added : “ Perseverance is ‘ go ’ for everything the science team wants to throw at it during this next scientific discipline campaign . ”
The rover , which is about the size of a lowly car , had been exploring the floor of the crater , as well as the site of an ancient river delta , sincelanding there in spectacular fashionin 2021 .
What now?
Exploring beyond the crater grant the rover team to investigate regions that have not been previously studied , potentially bring out different geological feature article and histories on Mars . doggedness ’s next science campaign is visit Northern Rim as its path will cover the northerly part of the southwesterly section of Jezero ’s lip . During the next year , the bird of passage will visit as many as four sites of geologic involvement , taking samples along the way , get about 4 miles ( 6.4 kilometers ) .
“ The northerly Rim safari bring us totally new scientific wealth as perseveration ramble into fundamentally new geology , ” state Ken Farley , task scientist for Perseverance at Caltech in Pasadena . “ It marks our transition from rock and roll that partially filled Jezero Crater when it was form by a monolithic impact about 3.9 billion old age ago to rocks from deep down inside Mars that were throw upward to form the crater rim after impact . ”
Farley said that the rocks map “ pieces of former martian gall and are among the oldest rocks discover anywhere in the solar system , ” add together that investigating them “ could help us interpret what Mars — and our own planet — may have looked like in the beginning . ”
After Northern Rim , Perseverance will head to Witch Hazel Hill , a scientifically substantial stony outcrop about 1,500 feet ( 450 meter ) down the other side of the rim .
Candice Bedford , a Perseverance scientist from Purdue University in West Lafayette , Indiana , state Witch Hazel Hill comprises more than 330 foot of layered outcropping , “ where each bed is like a pageboy in the Bible of martian story . As we take down the hill , we will be going back in time , enquire the ancient environments of Mars register in the crater brim . Then , after a exorbitant descent , we take our first bend of the wheel away from the volcanic crater rim toward Lac de Charmes , about 2 mi to the south . ”
Lac de Charmes is of particular pursuit as its placement means it ’s less probable to have been importantly affected by the shaping ofJezero Crater .
pertinacity will then move on to an outcropping of large blocks known as megabreccia , which JPL state may make up ancient fundamental principle broken up during the Isidis impact , a planet - falsify outcome some 3.9 billion years ago that belike penetrated deep into the martian crust as it created an impact catchment area some 745 mil ( 1,200 kilometers ) wide .
emerge from Jezero Crater is a major milepost for Perseverance , so stay tune up for update on the next phase of its commission over the coming months .
