Summary Perseverance rover begins challenging climb up Mars' Jezero Crater Rim next week. Rover in great shape after 4 missions, will navigate tough terrain with remote help and AutoNav technology. Exploration aims to find ancient signs of life in Mars' oldest materials on crater's top.
NASA's Perseverance rover is set to make the steep climb up Mars' Jezero Crater Rim next week. The exploration vehicle has already completed four science campaigns in its 30 months on the Red Planet. Perseverance has long climb ahead Starting next week, the rover will spend approximately one month making its way up the western side of Jezero Crater Rim to study regions at the top of the crater.
It is likely to face the toughest terrain challenges since landing on Mars in February 2021 - while project leaders have mapped an optimal route, the rover will still encounter slopes of up to 23 degrees as it makes up approximately 1,000 ft in elevation. According to Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the rover is in "excellent condition" having already completed four science campaigns and clocking up over 18 miles of unpaved travel. The rover will depend on both remote pilots and its own autonomous navigation capabilities - called AutoNav - to make the arduous journey.
One of the rover's mission objectives is to search for past signs of life. It recently gathered sedimentary samples from the river delta of Jericho Crater - an initial analysis found that the.