NASA's Perseverance Rover to Begin Long Climb Up Martian Crater Rim

Aug. 14, 2024

Editor’s note: This story was updated Aug. 16, 2024, to correct the length of time that NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been exploring Jezero Crater.

After 3½ years exploring Jezero Crater’s floor and river delta, the rover will ascend to an area where it will search for more discoveries that could rewrite Mars’ history.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover will soon begin a monthslong ascent up the western rim of Jezero Crater that is likely to include some of the steepest and most challenging terrain the rover has encountered to date. Scheduled to start the week of Aug. 19, the climb will mark the kickoff of the mission’s new science campaign — its fifth since the rover landed in the crater on Feb. 18, 2021.

“Perseverance has completed four science campaigns, collected 22 rock cores, and traveled over 18 unpaved miles,” said Perseverance project manager Art Thompson of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “As we start the Crater Rim Campaign, our rover is in excellent condition, and the team is raring to see what’s on the roof of this place.”

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-perseverance-rover-to-begin-long-climb-up-martian-crater-rim