PIA24429: Perseverance's Big Wheel


Perseverance’s Big Wheel

Caption:

This high-resolution image shows one of the six wheels aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, which landed on Feb. 18, 2021. The image was taken by one of Perseverance's color Hazard Cameras (Hazcams).

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 (the European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached 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 and Curiosity rovers.

For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars 2020 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Instrument Host Perseverance Curiosity Rover
Host Type Rover
Instrument Hazard Avoidance Camera
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Dust, Moon
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2021-02-19
Date in Caption 2021-02-18
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24429
Identifier PIA24429