New perspective of Jezero crater shows the path that perseverance could use to navigate

On February 18, 2021, NASA Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars. Over the next two years of its primary mission, the rover will search Jezero Crater (where it landed) for evidence of past life on Mars. This will involve collecting soil and rock samples of the preserved delta element that formed billions of years ago from sediments deposited by running water.

The question is, where should he look for such possible evidence? A possible route the rover will take during its primary mission is shown in a series of recent images provided by NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS). As illustrated in the image below, this path would take it from the cliffs that form the edge of the delta, up and through its surface to possible “coastal” deposits and to the edge of the crater.

Jezero Crater was chosen as the landing site for the Perseverance mission because scientists believe the area was once inundated with water. It was one of sixty candidate locations considered by a panel of mission team members and scientists from around the world. After five years of studying and reviewing potential sites, Jezero was considered the most promising site.

Indeed, Jezero possesses several characteristics that are believed to be the remains of ancient environments, which would have been habitable at one time. Much like Gale Crater, where the Curiosity rover (Perseverance sister mission) landed in 2012, these features formed in the presence of water and therefore offer clues to the past of Mars, which may have endured periodic water currents.

The base of the delta cliff, for example, defines the outer edge of where sediment was deposited by the river that flowed into the crater billions of years ago (at a time when Mars was much warmer and had abundant water on its surface). The surface of the delta and the possible shore are places likely to find fossilized bacteria, which the rover will leave in a cache for future retrieval.

Meanwhile, the rim of the crater – which is 610 meters (2,000 feet) high – marks the boundary of the old lake and most likely retains indications of the lake’s elevation over time. Once we got there Perseverance explore it and the surrounding plains to learn more about when the crater became a lake bed. It is also hoped that he will learn more about how and when the lake has lost its water over time.

The path is several tens of kilometers long and would occupy the rover for the duration of its main mission. For reference, the prominent crater nestled in the delta (near the center of the image) is about 1 km (0.6 miles) in diameter. In the event of a mission expansion – which, barring a problem, seems very likely – mission controllers will begin to look for another promising path to follow.

Like its predecessors, Perseverance could explore Mars for many years! But this mission will also lead an unprecedented scientific operation, where the samples it collects will be returned to Earth by a separate mission from ESA. This will allow scientists to analyze the rocks and soil of Mars in Earth laboratories for decades to come.

Much like the lunar rocks returned by the astronauts from Apollo, the study of these extraterrestrial materials will lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of the formation of the rocky planets of our solar system, and possibly even the beginning of life on Earth. (and maybe also on Mars). . It promises to be an exciting time, that’s for sure!

Further reading: NASA