This illustration depicts a possible area through which the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover could traverse across Jezero Crater as it investigates several ancient environments that may have once been habitable. The route begins at the cliffs defining the base of a delta produced by a river as it flowed into a lake that once filled the crater. The path then traverses up and across the delta toward possible ancient shoreline deposits, and then climbs the 2,000-foot-high (610-meter-high) crater rim to explore the surrounding plains. About half of this traverse could be completed in Perseverance's prime mission (one Mars year, or two Earth years). For reference, the prominent crater near the center of the image is about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) across.
This mosaic is composed of multiple precisely aligned images from the Context Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and has a resolution of 20 meet (6 meters) per pixel.
A division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover for the agency.
For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ .
Name | Value | Additional Values |
---|---|---|
Target | Mars | |
System | ||
Target Type | Planet | |
Mission | Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) | Mars 2020 |
Instrument Host | Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter | Perseverance |
Host Type | Orbiter | Rover |
Instrument | Context Camera (CTX) | |
Detector | ||
Extra Keywords | Color, Crater | |
Acquisition Date | ||
Release Date | 2021-01-27 | |
Date in Caption | ||
Image Credit | NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS | |
Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24310 | |
Identifier | PIA24310 |