NASA’s Perseverance rover is navigating one of its toughest challenges yet—a steep and slippery climb up the western wall of Jezero Crater on Mars.
This demanding ascent aims to bring the rover to the crater rim by early December, where it will continue its exploration of new geological formations that could offer clues about Mars’s ancient environment.
During this climb, Perseverance has encountered loose, sandy dust and a brittle crust, making traction difficult, but the rover team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is developing new strategies to stabilize its progress.
Recently, Perseverance captured a panoramic view of Jezero Crater, revealing key landmarks from its 3½-year journey and offering breathtaking perspectives of the Martian terrain.
The Climb: Perseverance’s Struggle Against Steep, Loose Terrain
Perseverance’s path up Jezero Crater’s wall has not been an easy one. The rover is currently tackling a slope of about 20 degrees, a steep angle made even more challenging by Mars’s thin surface crust and loose, sandy dust. This difficult terrain has caused Perseverance’s wheels to slide backward on multiple occasions. On one particular day, the rover achieved only 20% of its intended distance due to slippage on the loose material. Camden Miller, a rover planner at JPL, explained, “For every two steps forward Perseverance takes, we were taking at least one step back.”
To overcome these obstacles, the JPL team has employed a variety of techniques to increase traction. These include driving the rover backward, using a crosswise path on the slope, and hugging the rockier and more stable northern edge of the path known as “Summerland Trail.” Miller shared, “No Mars rover mission has tried to climb up a mountain this big this fast,” highlighting the ambitious nature of the mission. While these strategies have helped stabilize Perseverance, the progress remains slower than anticipated. Despite this, the team is determined, seeing the summit as a gateway to new scientific discoveries.
Perseverance’s Panoramic View and Its Significance
During a pause in its ascent, Perseverance took the opportunity to capture a panoramic view of Jezero Crater, showing the vast and rugged Martian landscape that it has been exploring since its landing in early 2021. This view, looking back over the path it has traveled, includes key locations like the Octavia E. Butler landing site, Kodiak Butte, and the crater’s ancient river delta. JPL shared that this image allows scientists to visualize the rover’s journey and contextualize the samples collected along the way.
This panoramic image is more than just a scenic view; it helps scientists at JPL and around the world trace Perseverance’s journey and understand the sequence of geological events that shaped Jezero Crater billions of years ago. The image also serves as a reminder of the mission’s accomplishments and the challenges Perseverance has overcome, reinforcing the rover’s role in humanity’s quest to uncover Mars’s secrets.
Scientific Objectives at the Summit: Unlocking Mars’s History
Once Perseverance reaches the rim of Jezero Crater, it will move to locations like “Lookout Hill” and “Witch Hazel Hill” to study new rock formations revealed by orbital data. These light-toned bedrock formations, potentially rich in carbonate minerals, offer tantalizing clues about Mars’s ancient environment, possibly including signs of past water activity. By analyzing these rocks, scientists hope to expand their understanding of Mars’s geological evolution and the conditions that might have supported ancient microbial life.
Comparing these rock formations with previous samples, particularly those from areas like Cheyava Falls in the “Bright Angel” region, could provide valuable insights into the progression of Mars’s climate. Perseverance has already collected 24 samples of rock, regolith, and atmosphere since its mission began, each sample building on the previous to form a detailed record of Jezero Crater’s history. JPL’s Project Scientist Ken Farley noted, “These samples will help us piece together Mars’s geological puzzle and determine if life ever existed on our planetary neighbor.”
Perseverance’s Role in Future Mars Exploration
As Perseverance makes its climb and collects additional samples, it also sets the stage for future Mars missions. NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission, scheduled for the 2030s, plans to retrieve these samples and bring them to Earth for advanced analysis. The journey up Jezero Crater’s wall and the rover’s close-up studies of previously inaccessible areas are essential steps in this larger mission to determine Mars’s habitability.
This climb is not only a test of Perseverance’s engineering but also a testament to the ingenuity of NASA’s mission team. Their creative solutions to the rover’s challenges ensure that Perseverance can continue its vital work on Mars, advancing humanity’s understanding of the Red Planet.
