NASA’s Perseverance Rover Set to Begin Third Year at Jezero Crater
After completing the first sample depot on another world, the rover continues its hunt for Mars rocks worthy of study on Earth.
NASA’s Perseverance rover will celebrate its second anniversary on the surface of Mars Saturday, Feb. 18. Since arriving at Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been examining geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet that are central to the first step of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency)Mars Sample Return campaign. Scientists want to study Martian samples with powerful lab equipment on Earth to search forsigns of ancient microbial lifeand to better understand the processes that have shaped the surface of Mars.This is a high-resolution version of a video taken by several cameras as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. Cameras aboard the rover captured these shots; a microphone captured the first-ever audio of a Mars landing.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech“Anniversaries are a time of reflection and celebration, and the Perseverance team is doing a lot of both,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena. “Perseverance has inspected and performed data collection on hundreds of intriguing geologic features, collected 15 rock cores, and created thefirst sample depot on another world. With the start of the next science campaign, known as ‘Upper Fan,’ on Feb. 15, we expect to be adding to that tally very soon.”In addition to the rock cores, Perseverance has collected two regolith samples and one atmospheric sample, and it has sealed three“witness” tubes. (Learn more about all18 samples taken so far.)Numbers play a big role in the life of a Mars rover mission, not just because the team includes an impressive quantity of scientists (who don’t usually mind numbers) and engineers (who love them), but because statistics provide the best and most efficient glimpse of vehicle trends and performance.For instance, the mission can tell you not only that the rover has driven 9.3 miles (14.97 kilometers), but also that as of Feb. 14, its left frontwheelhas performed 9,423 revolutions. They can tell you not only that theMOXIE(short for Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) technology demonstration has produced 3.25 ounces (92.11 grams) of oxygen, but also that the Gas Dust Removal Tool(gDRT)– the little gas-puffing device on the robotic arm – has puffed 62 times to clear residual dust and particles from rock-abrading activities.“We deal with a lot of numbers,” said Perseverance deputy project manager Steve Lee from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We collect them, evaluate them, compare them, and more times than we want to admit, bore our loved ones with them during a family dinner.”With that, here are some the most up-to-date statistics regarding Perseverance’s first two Earth years of Jezero surface operations. Some will seem obscure, while others are more immediate, but they all underscore how productive the mission has been.Perseverance Science StatisticsThe rover carriesseven science instruments, and they’ve been busy.Laser shots fired by theSuperCamscience instrument: 230,554Soundings performed by theRIMFAX(Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment) ground-penetrating radar to study underground rock layers: 676,828Mars audio recordings taken by SuperCam’smicrophone: 662Hours of Mars weather data recorded byMEDA(Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer): 15,769.1Hours the X-ray filament on thePIXL(Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) instrument has operated: 298.2Laser shots by theSHERLOC(Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument: 4,337,010SHERLOCspectroscopy observations: 33What’s the weather on Mars? See Perseverance’s daily reportPerseverance Mobility and Operational StatisticsAlong with the massive drill-toting robotic arm, the rover has a small sample handling arm inside its belly.Times the rover’s mainrobotic armhas been unstowed and stowed: 64Times thedrillon that arm has touched Mars: 39Timesdrill bitshave been exchanged: 48Abrasionsperformed by the drill: 17Distance the rover’ssample handling arm’sz-stage has traveled up and down: 676.1 feet (206.1 meters)Perseverance’s Camera StatisticsPerseverance packs seven science cameras along with nine engineering cameras. Together,those camerashave taken more than 166,000 images. Here are the image tallies for several of them.See raw images from Perseverance’s camerasMastcam-Z: 86,660Navigation Cameras: 21,571Front Hazard-Avoidance Cameras: 3,909Rear Hazard-Avoidance Cameras: 474Sampling and Caching System Camera:1,321SuperCamRemote Micro-Imager: 2,825SHERLOCWATSON: 5,754SHERLOCContext Imager: 2,260MEDA SkyCam: 1,831PIXL Micro-Context Camera: 1,012Entry, Descent, and Landing Cameras: 33,279The descent stage holding NASAs Perseverance rover can be seen falling thorough the Martian atmosphere in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021, by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. An ellipse indicates where Perseverance touched down.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona“Behind each number is a lot of thought and effort from a very talented group of women and men on the Perseverance team,” said Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager at JPL. “We have come a long way together, and I can’t think of a better group to work with as we go even farther.”In fact, when Perseverance marks its second landing anniversary, Mars will be 97 million miles (156 million kilometers) from Earth. The weather at Jezero Crater is expected to be sunny with a high of about 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 degrees Celsius). The rover has instructions to perform remote science and take images of a place in Jezero Crater called “Jenkins Gap.” And people on the mission team are expected to take at least one moment to recall where they were and how they felt two years ago, when Perseverance landed on Mars.More About the MissionA key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars isastrobiology, including caching samples that may contain 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.Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, 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 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includesArtemismissions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.More highlights of Perseverance’s first two years on Mars:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/highlights/For more about Perseverance:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/