PIA24744: The End of One Drive by Perseverance on the Floor of Jezero Crater


The End of One Drive by Perseverance on the Floor of Jezero Crater

Caption:

This image of a Martian vista in Jezero Crater, made from smaller individual images, was taken by NASA's Perseverance rover on July 3, 2021 (the 131th sol, or Martian day, of its mission). The rover's tracks from its autonomous drive that day are visible on the right. The images that compose the larger mosaic came from the rover's Navigation Cameras and were processed to enhance the contrast.

Perseverance has been exploring the floor of Jezero since it landed on Feb. 18, 2021.

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).

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

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.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built and manages operations of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover for NASA.

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
Instrument Host Perseverance
Host Type Rover
Instrument Navigation Camera (Navcam)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Crater, Dust, Moon
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2021-07-21
Date in Caption 2021-02-18 2021-07-03
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24744
Identifier PIA24744