PIA23970: Avoiding Hazards at Jezero Crater


Avoiding Hazards at Jezero Crater

Caption:

click here for Figure 1 for PIA23970
Figure 1

NASA's Perseverance rover was able to use its new Terrain-Relative Navigation technology to avoid hazards and find a safe place to land in Jezero Crater on Mars. In this graphic, the blue areas are considered safe zones and red are considered more dangerous. Perseverance's landing spot is marked with a green dot. A version with an arrow makes the landing site easier to see.

Background Info:

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 ESA (European Space Agency), 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 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

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

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars 2020
Instrument Host Perseverance
Host Type Rover
Instrument
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Crater, Dust, Moon
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2021-02-18
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23970
Identifier PIA23970