Over 100 days after touching down in Jezero Crater on February 18, NASA's Perseverance rover has launched its inaugural full-scale science campaign. The mission targets two key study zones and aims to collect the first rock samples for eventual return to Earth.
Since landing on February 18, Perseverance's early months focused on instrument checkouts and documenting companion helicopter Ingenuity's seven successful flights. Now, demonstration phase complete, the rover commenced its primary science operations on June 1—hunting for signs of ancient life on Mars.
“We've put the commissioning phase and landing site in the rearview mirror and hit the road,” said Jennifer Trosper, project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Over the next few months, Perseverance will explore a four-square-kilometer patch of crater floor.”
After surveying this region, the rover will loop back to its landing site, having covered 2.5 to 5 kilometers. It will then proceed northwest to the ancient Jezero Crater delta—Earth analogs of which preserve organic compounds and biosignatures. The science team is primed to investigate these former river sediments.
This campaign zeroes in on two geological units: the Crater Floor Fractured Rough and Séítah (“in the middle of the sand” in Navajo), exposing ancient bedrock.
“We've mapped the route, flagged optional detours for points of interest, and marked potential obstacles,” Trosper added. “This is where we'll collect the first samples for return to Earth."
Perseverance plans to cache one or two core samples from four sites across these units—rocks submerged under at least 100 meters of water around 3.8 billion years ago. Scientists worldwide anticipate the stories these layered outcrops will reveal.
