Perseverance’s challenging three-and-a-half month climb out of Jezero Crater has definitely been worth it, with NASA reportedly discovering a fascinating array of rocks worthy of detailed examination.
“During previous science campaigns in Jezero, it could take several months to find a rock that was significantly different from the last rock we sampled and scientifically unique enough for sampling,” said Perseverance project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is overseeing the rover mission. “But up here on the crater rim, there are new and intriguing rocks everywhere the rover turns. It’s been all we had hoped for and more.”
The rover’s ongoing work is helping scientists to gain greater knowledge about the red planet’s history and evolution, though its ultimate aim is to find out whether any kind of life form ever existed there.
Perseverance completed its climb out of Jezero Crater in December 2024, ascending 1,640 feet (500 meters) while making a few stops along the way to carry out various science observations.
Since the six-wheeled rover began exploring the rim in January, Perseverance has collected five rock samples that in the coming years could be returned to Earth for closer study in laboratory conditions.
It has also carried out detailed analysis of seven rocks and analyzed another 83 from a distance by zapping them with a laser.
Scientists are finding the western rim of Jezero Crater to be particularly fruitful due to ancient meteor impacts in the area that disturbed the underlying rocks, bringing them to the surface.
Perseverance collected its first crater-rim rock sample, named “Silver Mountain,” soon after reaching the top of the crater. NASA said the rock that it came from likely formed at least 3.9 billion years ago during Mars’ earliest geologic period, and may have been broken up and recrystallized during an ancient meteor impact. Scientists have suggested that it’s the oldest sample collected by the rover to date.
Perseverance’s mission began in earnest in 2021 when it touched down on the martian surface in dramatic fashion — a moment captured in incredible detail by cameras attached to both the rover and the spacecraft that dropped it off.