A key goal of the Perseverance mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the collection of samples that may contain traces of ancient microbial life. The rover is studying the planet’s past geology and climate to pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and to become the first mission to collect and preserve Martian rocks and regolith. The Mars Sample Return Program, implemented by NASA in collaboration with ESA (the European Space Agency), aims to send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
After nearly five years on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has traveled nearly 25 miles (40 kilometers), and the mission team is busy testing the rover’s durability and collecting new scientific data en route to a new region nicknamed “Lake Charm,” where it will search for rock samples for analysis next year. Like its predecessor, Curiosity, which has been exploring a different region of Mars since 2012, Perseverance was built for long journeys. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which built Perseverance and manages the mission, continues testing the rover’s components here on Earth to ensure the six-wheeled science vehicle will last for years to come. Last summer, JPL confirmed that the rotary actuators that turn the rover’s wheels can operate optimally for at least another 37 miles (60 kilometers); similar testing of the braking system is also ongoing. Over the past two years, engineers have conducted a comprehensive assessment of nearly all of the vehicle’s subsystems, concluding that they can be used until at least 2031.
The Perseverance rover passes through the Jezero Crater on Mars, home to an ancient system of lakes and rivers, collecting rock samples of scientific interest. In September 2025, the team announced that a rock sample, nicknamed “Cheyawa Falls,” contains potential evidence of past microbial life.
In addition to an impressive suite of six scientific instruments, Perseverance boasts greater autonomous control capabilities than previous Mars rovers. A paper published in IEEE Transactions on Field Robotics describes an autonomous planning tool called Enhanced Autonomous Navigation, or ENav. The software analyzes the space up to 15 meters (50 feet) ahead for potential hazards, then selects a path clear of obstacles and directs Perseverance’s wheels along it.
The tracks shown in this image indicate the slippery surface where Perseverance walked along the rim of Jezero Crater. The image was captured by one of the rover’s navigation cameras. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) meticulously plan each day of the rover’s mission on Mars. But once the rover begins moving, it operates autonomously and sometimes must react to unexpected obstacles in the terrain. Previous rovers could do this to some extent, but not when these obstacles were located close together. They also couldn’t react so early, resulting in slowdowns when approaching sand pits, rocks, and ledges. In contrast, the ENav algorithm evaluates each rover wheel independently, taking into account terrain elevation, tradeoffs between different routes, and zones designated by operators as “prohibited” or “not prohibited” for further travel.
“Perseverance completed more than 90% of its journey in autonomous driving mode, allowing it to quickly collect a diverse range of samples,” said Hiro Ono, an autonomous driving researcher at JPL and the paper’s lead author. “In the future, when humans travel to the Moon and even Mars, long-range autonomous driving will become even more important for exploring these worlds.”
A paper published in the journal Science details the Perseverance rover’s discoveries in the “margin zone”—a geological region on the edge, or inner rim, of Jezero Crater. The rover collected three samples from this region. Scientists believe these samples could be particularly useful for demonstrating how ancient rocks from deep within Mars interacted with water and the atmosphere, creating conditions favorable for life.
From September 2023 to November 2024, Perseverance ascended 400 meters (1,312 feet) within the Marginal Block, studying rocks along the way, particularly those containing the mineral olivine. Scientists use minerals as chronometers, as the crystals they contain can record precise data about the moment and conditions of their formation.
The crater and surrounding area contain large deposits of olivine, which forms at high temperatures, typically deep within the planet, and provides insight into the planet’s internal structure. Scientists believe the olivine in the rim zone formed through an intrusion—a process in which magma penetrates subsurface layers and cools, turning into igneous rock. In this case, erosion later exposed this rock, where it could have interacted with water from the crater’s ancient lake and carbon dioxide, which was abundant in the planet’s early atmosphere.
This color mosaic was captured by the Perseverance rover during its ascent of the western wall of Jezero Crater. The image shows many landmarks the rover visited during its 3.5 years of exploration of Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
These interactions produce new minerals called carbonates, which can preserve traces of past life, as well as clues about how Mars’ atmosphere changed over time.
Together, olivine and carbonates reflect the interactions of rocks, water, and the atmosphere within the crater, including changes in each of these elements over time. Olivine in the rim block appears to have been altered by water at its base, where it was submerged. But the higher Perseverance rose, the more the olivine exhibited textures characteristic of magma chambers, such as crystallization, and the fewer signs of water influence.
The rover arrived on Mars with 43 sample collection tubes. Perseverance has so far sealed and packaged nearly all of the rock and regolith (rock and dust) samples, as well as one atmospheric sample and three control tubes. Early in the mission’s development, NASA set a requirement for the rover to collect at least 31 rock, regolith, and control tube samples during Perseverance’s mission to Jezero. As part of the project, 12 tubes were added, bringing the total to 43. The additional tubes were included in anticipation of challenging conditions on Mars, which could cause some tubes to malfunction.
NASA’s Perseverance rover may soon set a record for the greatest distance traveled on another planet. Nearly five years into its mission to the Red Planet, the car-sized rover still has the capacity to travel more than twice the distance it has already traveled, mission scientists announced on December 17, 2025, at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Louisiana. If all goes according to plan and nothing breaks, Perseverance will be able to travel up to 100 kilometers by the time its mission ends.
By these estimates, the six-wheeled robot is on track to surpass the current range record of 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers), set by NASA’s Opportunity rover after more than 14 years of exploring Mars before a powerful dust storm ended its mission in 2018. “Perseverance is in excellent condition,” Steve Lee, the rover’s deputy project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told reporters at the conference.
Lee said engineering tests conducted this summer confirmed that the rotary actuators used to control Perseverance’s wheels can operate optimally for at least another 37 miles (60 kilometers). According to NASA, the rover has already traveled about 25 miles (40 kilometers) since landing in Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. “That’s exactly 100 kilometers,” Lee said.
On September 8, 2025, NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this view of the area, nicknamed “Mont Musard.” The three-image panorama also includes another region, “Lake Charme,” where the rover team will search for additional rock core samples to collect next year. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
Perseverance was initially tested and certified for a range of only 12 miles (20 kilometers). Its increased durability stems from lessons learned from its predecessor, Curiosity, whose wheels accumulated increasingly more dents and punctures after encountering steeper, more rugged terrain than anticipated. This prompted engineers to design Perseverance’s wheels for even harsher conditions, increasing their diameter and doubling the number of treads compared to Curiosity’s wheels, Lee said.
“Everything is going very well,” Lee added. He noted that the rover’s wheels are “in fantastic condition,” with no known punctures or damage.
After landing with its wheels down in Jezero Crater—the remnant of a massive impact that occurred approximately 3.9 billion years ago, which later formed a large lake and river delta—the Perseverance rover drilled holes and collected rock samples in search of signs of ancient microbial life. Since then, the rover has climbed more than 400 meters (1,300 feet) up the crater’s inner wall and onto its rim, exploring new territory.
Along the way, Perseverance discovered one of its most intriguing targets yet—an arrowhead-shaped rock nicknamed Cheyawa Falls, which contains chemical signatures and structures that scientists believe may have formed through processes associated with microbial life billions of years ago, when Mars was much wetter than it is today.
In a paper published on December 17 in the journal Science, scientists report the results of their studies of the “rim block” of a crater where the Perseverance rover collected samples rich in the mineral olivine. This olivine likely formed at high temperatures deep within the Red Planet and then surfaced, where it interacted with water from the long-vanished Lake Jezero and with carbon dioxide in the early atmosphere of Mars.
This image was taken by the Perseverance spacecraft’s right-front navigation camera on December 10, 2024, to show the rim of Jezero Crater. NASA/JPL-Caltech
These interactions, scientists say, produced carbonate minerals that retain chemical traces of past habitats and possibly biological activity.
“The combination of olivine and carbonate was a key factor in choosing the landing site at Jezero Crater,” said lead study author Ken Williford of the Blue Marble Institute for Space Studies in Washington, D.C., in a NASA statement. “These minerals are powerful indicators of planetary evolution and the potential for life.”
As Perseverance moves beyond the crater rim, scientists hope to collect additional olivine-rich samples and compare them with samples collected from the crater’s rim.
The rover currently has six unused sample tubes on board, and at least two of them contain samples that have been collected but not yet sealed, meaning they could be replaced if more promising targets come along, Li said.
Such flexibility could prove important as the rover navigates new terrain. This week, the rover is expected to reach a site nicknamed Lac de Charmes, located just beyond the rim of Jezero Crater, where ancient rocks appear to be better preserved—and potentially provide more information about early geological processes on Mars—than those closer to the crater, Bryony Horgan of Purdue University in Indiana, co-author of a new paper in the journal Science, told reporters on Wednesday.
One of the navigation cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this image of tracks left by the rover as it climbed the rim of Jezero Crater on October 11, 2024, the 1295th Martian day (sol) of the mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Scientists are aiming to return 10 vials of samples collected by the Perseverance rover, dropped on the crater floor in 2023, to laboratories on Earth, but their return remains uncertain as NASA’s troubled Mars sample return program remains in limbo.
According to Lee, this uncertainty has not changed Perseverance’s short-term science plans. He noted that the mission team is working with NASA Headquarters to finalize the rover’s exploration plan for the next 2.5 years, which will last until most of 2028. There are currently no plans to deploy additional sample tubes beyond those already awaiting potential collection.
When asked how long Perseverance could operate on Mars, Lee responded that the rover does not carry consumables, such as propellant, that could end the mission. A NASA assessment of the rover’s subsystems predicts that Perseverance could continue operating until at least 2031.
The main factor limiting the rover’s lifespan is its radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which generates electricity using the heat released during the radioactive decay of plutonium-238 and gradually reduces its output over time. This will require more careful operation, Li said, comparing it to a phone that charges more slowly from a less powerful power source.
Mars is, on average, about 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) from Earth. This vast distance creates significant communication latency, making real-time remote control—or “joystick control”—impossible. Instead, over the past 28 years, across several missions, rover routes have been planned and executed by human “drivers.” They analyze terrain and environmental data to chart a route using waypoints typically spaced no more than 330 feet (100 meters) apart to avoid potential hazards. They then send their plans via NASA’s Deep Space Network to the rover, which executes them.
But to fire Perseverance’s engines on the 1707th and 1709th Martian days (sols) of the mission, the team took a different approach: generative artificial intelligence analyzed high-resolution orbital images from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and terrain data from digital elevation models. After identifying important terrain features—bedrock, outcrops, hazardous boulder fields, sand ripples, and the like—it generated a continuous route with waypoints.
This annotated image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the AI-planned route and the actual route taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover during its 807-foot (246-meter) drive on December 10, 2025, the 1709th Martian day (sol) of the mission. This drive was the second of two demonstrations—the first took place on December 8—demonstrating that generative AI can be integrated into rover route planning. The purple lines show the path the rover’s wheels would have taken if it had followed the AI-planned waypoints, indicated by purple circles. (Waypoints are fixed locations where the rover accepts a new set of instructions.) The orange lines are based on data received after the drive was completed and show the actual path taken by the rover. The short, thick blue line segments at the beginning of the route, in the upper right corner, show the portion of the path determined by the rover’s drivers and based on images of the surface ahead taken by the rover. The surface areas indicated by light green rectangles are called “holding zones.” Perseverance’s autonomous control software can only select routes within these zones. The graphics were created using Hyperdrive, part of the software suite used to plan the rover’s thrusters and manage the massive flow of engineering data from the Perseverance rover. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by the California Institute of Technology, developed and operates the Perseverance rover. The University of Arizona in Tucson manages the HiRISE spacecraft, built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for SMD.
In a mission update in late December 2025, Perseverance team members described the rover’s most detailed image to date of so-called aeolian megaripples—massive sand waves that can reach heights of approximately 2 meters. Unlike smaller waves that can easily shift, megaripples on Mars are often considered “mostly inactive,” preserving information about the ancient wind patterns and atmospheric conditions that helped shape the Red Planet’s landscape. In a recent update, the mission team shared an image of a giant wind-generated sand wave, nicknamed “Hazyview.”
On Earth, wind constantly transports sand, creating shifting dunes and ripples. On Mars, the situation is similar, but somewhat more complex. Despite the fact that the Martian atmosphere is much thinner than Earth’s, wind remains one of the main factors shaping the surface, capable of eroding bedrock, turning it into sand grains, and transporting them across the landscape.
However, megaripples can become stubbornly resistant to movement. The mission team noted that when atmospheric water interacts with dust, a salty, dusty crust can form on the surface of the ripples. This crust increases cohesion—essentially “bonding” the grains together—making it difficult for normal winds to move the deposits. In this sense, many Martian megaripples function as time capsules: they can record past wind patterns and episodes of water-dust interactions, rather than being constantly renewed with every gust.
Hazyview’s megaripples could provide important clues about Mars’s ancient geologic history. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Some megaripples on Mars show signs of movement, suggesting that rare periods of strong winds may cause crustal erosion or partially reactivate the sand, further displacing the surface. To further study this phenomenon, the Perseverance rover “Honeyguide” moved into the ripple formation zone.
The Hazyview megaripple was discovered in the Honeyguide ripple field near the rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater, which Perseverance has been exploring since landing in February 2021.
As part of the Honeyguide project, the Perseverance rover conducted a particularly intensive study of megaripples, dubbed “Hazyview.” The research team reported that the rover collected over 50 observations using a wide range of its payloads—SuperCam, Mastcam-Z, MEDA, PIXL, and WATSON—to determine how these ripples form and whether they are truly dormant.
Studying sand may seem secondary to the search for signs of ancient life on Mars, but megaripples have direct implications for both Martian science and human exploration planning.
From a scientific perspective, they offer a window into the most recent chapter of Mars’s surface evolution. If the megaripples are inactive, they preserve information about earlier winds and the chemical composition of water and dust. If they can be activated, this demonstrates that even modern Mars—cold and with thin air—is still capable of significantly altering its surface.
And, on a more practical level, the mission team emphasized that the chemical composition and adhesion of Martian soils will determine future operations: how vehicles will gain traction, how dust will behave around equipment, and even how accessible certain resources might be for on-site use. Studying the Red Planet’s past, hidden in its rocks, and preparing for future missions to its surface are keeping Perseverance busy as it continues its journey across Mars.
The Perseverance rover’s view of Crater Rim Drive shows the rover’s perspective as it traveled 807 feet (246 meters) along the rim of Jezero Crater on December 10, 2025, the 1709th Martian day (sol) of the mission. Fifty-three pairs of images from the Navigation Camera (Navcam), acquired over two hours and 35 minutes, were combined with rover data on orientation, wheel speed, and steering angle, as well as data from Perseverance’s inertial measurement unit (IMU), and placed into a 3D virtual environment. The result is this reconstruction, with virtual frames inserted approximately every 4 inches (0.1 meters) of movement. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by the California Institute of Technology, developed and manages the Perseverance rover.
Jezero Crater
In 2024, the Perseverance rover explored the Neretva Valley region of Jezero Crater, where researchers were fascinated by rocks with an intriguing popcorn-like texture and patterns reminiscent of leopard spots. Strategic (long-term) planning is particularly important for the Mars 2020 mission, given Perseverance’s crucial role in collecting samples for Mars Sample Return, and the Mars 2020 team is implementing this planning through campaigns.
A Mastcam-Z mosaic, composed of 59 individual Mastcam-Z images, depicts the terrain Perseverance visited en route to Dox Castle, the rover’s first stop on the crater rim. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
From the start of its steep climb along the crater rim, Perseverance follows the edge of a marginal unit (the edge of a margin!), an enigmatic unit rich in carbonates, a group of minerals strongly associated with habitability. Here, the rover team explored a pile of rocks called “Specter Chasm,” where Perseverance scraped away the dusty, weathered surface with its trusty abrasive tool. The resulting abraded area, called Eremita Mesa, is being studied by Perseverance’s proximity instruments mounted on its robotic arm. This includes taking close-up images to study the millimeter-scale particles that make up the rock using the Wide-Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering (WATSON) camera, which functions as Perseverance’s magnifying glass.
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Before the rover began its exploration, studies using orbital satellite data suggested that the rocks of the marginal unit could have formed in several different ways. Theories explored by the team include that the unit formed on the shoreline of an ancient lake that once filled Jezero Crater, or that it was instead formed by volcanic processes such as pyroclastic flows or ashfall, or ancient lava flowing into the crater. Since Perseverance began its exploration of the unit in September 2023, more than 350 sols ago (1 sol = 1 Martian day), the science team has been reviewing data collected by the rover’s instruments to help constrain the unit’s origin. Until now, this has remained largely a mystery, with the original rock textures possibly heavily affected by changes since its formation more than 3 billion years ago.
NASA’s Perseverance rover conducts a close approach study of the Eremita Mesa abrasion site in its Margin Unit on September 6, 2024, as it continues along the rim of Jezero Crater. This image was acquired by Perseverance’s forward left hazard camera (Hazcam) on sol 1261—the 1261st Martian day of the Mars 2020 mission—at 13:53:53 local mean solar time. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Impact craters like Jezero may be key to reconstructing the early geologic history of Mars, as they provide a window into the ancient crust by exposing and depositing deep-seated materials above the surface. Crater rims serve as guardians of Mars’s ancient history, uplifting and exposing the stratigraphy of these impact materials. Furthermore, the extremely high temperatures caused by impacts may facilitate the circulation of fluids through fractures similar to hydrothermal vents, which influences early habitability and may be preserved in the exposed bedrock of the crater rim. With the Perseverance rover, we have the potential to explore some of the oldest exposed rocks on the planet.
Exploring such diverse landscapes requires careful initial planning! The team spent several months preparing for the Rim Crater campaign, collaborating to map the types of materials Perseverance might encounter as it moves up and over the crater rim. Using orbital imagery acquired by the HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) instrument, the science team divided the crater rim region into 36 quadrants, carefully mapping the various rock formations based on the morphology, tones, and textures observed in the orbital images. Cartographers then connected the quadrant blocks to transform the 36 miniature maps into a single, large geologic map of the crater rim. This resource is used by the team to plan strategic routes to scientific areas of interest along the crater rim.
This image of the crater rim was taken by the Perseverance rover on Sol 383 (March 19, 2022) as it crossed the crater floor. Dox Castle is at the top of the image, in the background. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
This steep climb through the Martian regolith (soil) may prove too slow for the rover, as the wheels can slip on the steepest sections. It’s like trying to run up a sandy hill on the beach: with every step forward, you also slide down a little! This means the science and engineering teams are working closely to plan for a slow and smooth ride through this challenging terrain.
Driving through the Mount Ranier quadrangle, the team found a relatively unobstructed route to the crater rim, which they dubbed the Summerland Trail, aptly named after the very popular hiking trail leading to Mount Ranier. Perseverance is now moving toward its next waypoint, located near a rock outcrop called Pico Turquino, where the science team hopes to conduct further research using the PIXL and networked SHERLOC instruments.
As Perseverance moves along the Summerland Trail, it constantly observes its surroundings. Its SuperCam and Mastcam-Z cameras observe rocks on the ground and a distant hill called Crystal Creek. Perseverance can also look skyward at this time, monitoring the sun and atmosphere. Last week, Mastcam-Z captured images of Phobos (one of Mars’s two moons) passing in front of the sun!
An image from Perseverance’s right navigation camera, pointing toward the rover’s tracks left during previous missions in Jezero Crater. The camera is located high on the rover’s mast, and in this image, the rover is looking toward the floor of Jezero Crater. This image was acquired on October 4, 2024 (Sol 1288), at 12:51:26 PM LST. NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Perseverance rover lurks in the quiet, cold, and desolate landscape of Mars’s Jezero Crater, a place shrouded in shadows and steeped in the secrets of the past. Built for the planet’s harsh conditions, Perseverance braves the thin atmosphere and extreme temperature changes. Its microphone captures the eerie, spine-tingling whisper of Martian winds and records ghostly dust devils swirling above the barren landscape. Did the microphone pick up the sound of a skeleton crunching bones? We’ll leave that to your imagination.
Perseverance traversed the ominous slopes of Jezero Crater, exploring a series of weathered ridges to uncover the rim’s hidden geological secrets. The rover emerged from the shadows and descended into a field of light-colored rocks, illuminating a landscape reminiscent of bones and tombstones. Along the way, the rover encountered dark bedrock in Mist Park. Perseverance then faces another challenging climb back to the crater rim, plunging ever deeper into the unknown.
As night falls, the rover drifts off to sleep, watching the sun set over the horizon, casting ominous shadows across the landscape. A piercing wind howls throughout the night, like a lullaby for the intrepid explorer. However, Perseverance occasionally awakens from the turbulence of the night. Although the instruments primarily conduct scientific measurements during the day, they are not afraid of the dark, often observing what lurks in the shadows and contemplating the Martian night sky. Perseverance occasionally looks up to photograph the auroras and spot Phobos and Deimos, two moons of Mars.
This image of the Martian landscape on the rim of Jezero Crater, voted “Picture of the Week,” was captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover using its left-hand Mastcam-Z camera. The image was acquired on October 22, 2024 (sol 13:06) at 13:45:41 local mean solar time. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
NASA’s Perseverance rover is moving up the steep slope of Jezero Crater’s western flank. During its climb, the rover captured not only a breathtaking view of Jezero Crater’s interior but also images of the tracks left behind by its wheels spinning.
A composite of 44 frames from Perseverance’s 1282nd Martian day, the mosaic includes many of the landmarks and Martian firsts that made the rover’s 3.5-year exploration of Jezero so memorable, including the rover’s landing site, the spot where it first discovered sedimentary rocks, the location of the first sample repository on another planet, and the final landing site for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The rover captured the view near a spot the team calls “Far Rock,” about halfway up the crater wall.
“This image not only shows our past and present, but also reveals the biggest challenge to achieving our desired future,” said Perseverance deputy project manager Rick Welch of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “If you look at the right side of the mosaic, you begin to understand what we’re dealing with. Mars didn’t want anyone to easily reach the top of that ridge.”
On the right side of the mosaic, a slope of approximately 20 degrees is visible. While Perseverance has climbed 20-degree slopes before (both NASA’s Curiosity and Opportunity rovers have climbed slopes at least 10 degrees steeper), this is the first time it has climbed such a steep slope on such slippery ground.
For most of the climb, the rover traveled over loose dust and sand with a thin, fragile crust. On some days, Perseverance traveled only about 50% of the distance it could have traveled on less slippery surfaces, and on one occasion, it only covered 20% of its planned route.
“Rovers have navigated steeper slopes and slipperier ones, but this is the first time we’ve had to tackle both—and on this scale,” said Camden Miller of JPL, who designed, or “driver,” the Curiosity rover and now serves in the same role on the Perseverance mission. “For every two steps forward Perseverance took, we took at least one step back. The rover designers saw that this was likely to be a long and arduous test, so we sat down to think through several options.”
NASA’s Perseverance rover moves backward and then forward, negotiating slippery terrain on its way to the rim of Jezero Crater. The rover used one of its navigation cameras to take 31 images. NASA/JPL-Caltech
The teams sent Perseverance to test slip reduction strategies. First, they reversed it up a slope (tests on Earth had shown that, under certain conditions, the rover’s rocker-and-bogie suspension system provides better traction when reversing). Then they tried driving across the slope (shifting backward) and approached the northern edge of the “Summerland Trail”—the mission’s nickname for the rover’s route along the crater rim.
These studies showed that while all three approaches improved traction, positioning near the northern edge of the slope proved most effective. The rover’s developers believe that the presence of larger rocks closer to the surface was crucial.
By October 2024, Perseverance had been climbing the steep slopes of Jezero Crater’s rim for over two months, and since approaching the crater’s edge, it had been noticing increasingly diverse and strange-looking rocks. Returning to Jezero’s entrance channel, the Neretva Valley, Perseverance spotted a row of multicolored boulders on Mount Washburn. Then, the science team and the internet were mesmerized by Freya’s Castle—a rock formation striped like a zebra. A ghostly field of bright white rocks at the base of a mound on the crater’s rim, known as “Fog Park,” appeared in Perseverance’s field of view, sparking a new mystery for the science team to unravel.
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance turned back to take this image of its tracks across monotonous terrain using its rear-right obstacle detection camera. Pico Turquino, a rocky mountain on the rim of Jezero Crater, is barely visible in the background. Perseverance acquired this image on November 29, 2024 (sol 1343, or Martian day 1343, of the Mars 2020 mission), at 11:58:52 AM local solar time. NASA/JPL-Caltech
On Earth, we find white rocks in a wide variety of geological settings, which is unsurprising given the diversity of light-colored minerals that can form in Earth’s various tectonic settings. However, on Mars, with its lack of plate tectonics and basaltic crust dominated by dark minerals such as olivine and pyroxene, white rocks are a rare find. The science team planned several observations using Perseverance’s remote sensing instruments to assess the composition of these unusual rocks, including multispectral imaging with Mastcam-Z and laser irradiation with Supercam. Unfortunately, none of the rocks were large enough to safely inspect them up close using Perseverance’s robotic arm.
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this image of a field of bright white floating rocks on the rim of Jezero Crater using the Right Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera, located high on the rover’s mast, helps steer it. The image was acquired on October 27, 2024. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASAU
Beyond their composition, another mystery is how these stones got here. All the blocks are in a “float” state (float = loose rock, not in its original location) and scattered over just a few square meters. Perhaps they are the erosional remains of some stable vein or rock layer, where the softer surrounding rock was eroded? Or could these blocks have rolled downslope from a more permanent outcrop of bedrock composed of the mysterious white material?
Perseverance captured this image of a possible breccia outcrop on the rim of Jezero Crater using the left-hand Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras mounted high on the rover’s mast. The image was acquired on October 27, 2024. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASAU
At Pico Turquino, a bedrock mesa on the rim of Jezero Crater, scientific and engineering teams planned near-field geophysical surveys at Percy’s 30th abrasion site, Rio Chiquito. SCAM and ZCAM investigated rocks near the abrasion site, while the SHERLOC and PIXL instruments were used for near-field geophysical surveys. Data obtained at Rio Chiquito will help characterize the Pico Turquino region and help scientists understand the overall picture and complex geologic history of Jezero Crater.
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance captured this image of the Rio Chiquito abrasion zone using the SHERLOC WATSON camera mounted on a turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. The image was acquired on November 20, 2024 (sol 1334, or Martian day 1334, of the Mars 2020 mission) at 4:18:39 PM local solar time. NASA/JPL-Caltech
In December 2024, NASA’s Perseverance rover reached the summit of Jezero Crater, at a location the science team calls “Observation Hill,” and headed to its first science stop after a months-long climb. The rover ascended to explore a region of Mars unlike anything it had previously explored. Over three and a half months, the rover climbed a 20% incline, covering 500 vertical meters, making stops along the way for scientific observations.
Since its 2025 landing at Jezero in February 2021, Perseverance has completed four science campaigns: Crater Floor, Fan Front, Upper Fan, and Boundary Zone. The science team is calling Perseverance’s fifth campaign “Northern Rim,” as its route covers the northern part of Jezero’s southwestern rim.
NASA’s Perseverance rover used its right-front navigation camera to take this first image of the rim of Jezero Crater on December 10, 2024, sol 1354 of the mission. The camera is facing west from a location called the “lookout.” NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The Northern Rim campaign brings us entirely new scientific riches, as Perseverance explores fundamentally new geology,” said Ken Farley, a Perseverance project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “It marks the transition from rocks that partially filled Jezero Crater when it formed as a result of a massive impact about 3.9 billion years ago, to rocks from deep within Mars that were ejected and formed the crater rim after the impact.”
“These rocks are fragments of the early Martian crust and are among the oldest rocks discovered in the solar system. Studying them could help us understand what Mars—and our own planet—looked like in its early days,” Farley added.
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this image showing the slippery surface that made it difficult to climb to the rim of Jezero Crater. The rover’s tracks can be seen extending into the distance, toward the crater floor. NASA/JPL-Caltech
In April 2025, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover continued toward the lower part of Witch Hazel Hill on the rim of Jezero Crater. It stopped along the boundary visible from orbit separating light and dark rock outcrops (also known as a contact), at a location the team dubbed “Port Anson.” Beyond this contact, the rover discovered numerous neat rocks that may have had a different origin and been transported to their current location, also known as “floats.”
The image shows an observation called “Skull Hill,” captured by the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument. This floating rock uniquely contrasts with the surrounding light-colored outcrop with its dark tone and angular surface, and it features several depressions in the rock. If you look closely, you can even spot spherules in the surrounding regolith. The depressions on Skull Hill may have formed from the erosion of rock debris or wind scour. Several such dark-colored floating rocks have been found in the Port Anson area, and the team is working to better understand their origins and how they arrived there.
This image, taken by the right eye of the Mars Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument, shows Skull Hill, a dark floating rock. The rover acquired this image while moving west downhill toward a lower point called Witch Hazel Hill. Perseverance acquired this image on April 11, 2025, sol 1472 of the Mars 2020 mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
The dark color of Skull Hill resembles meteorites discovered in Gale Crater by the Curiosity rover. Chemical composition plays a key role in meteorite identification, and the Gale meteorites contain significant amounts of iron and nickel. However, a recent analysis of SuperCam data from nearby similar rocks indicates their composition is inconsistent with a meteoritic origin.
Alternatively, Skull Hill may be an igneous rock torn from a nearby outcrop or ejected from an impact crater. On Earth and Mars, iron and magnesium are among the main components of igneous rocks, which form during the cooling of magma or lava. These rocks may include dark-colored minerals such as olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. The rover is equipped with instruments to measure the chemical composition of Martian rocks. Understanding the composition of these dark-colored floating objects will help the team determine the origin of this unique rock.
This image of the Seal Island work area near Port Anson was acquired by Perseverance’s Hazard Camera A. The image was acquired on April 12, 2025 (Sol 1473, or Martian day 1473, of the Mars 2020 mission) at 12:50:32 PM local solar time. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Perseverance was also busy exploring the lower part of Witch Hazel Hill, an outcrop located on the rim of Jezero Crater. The outcrop consists of alternating light and dark layers, and the team naturally sought to understand the composition and relationships between the light and dark layers. A sample was taken from one of the light layers, which consisted of very small rock or mineral fragments, at Main River. Since then, researchers have learned that dark layers tend to be composed of larger fragments than light layers. Sometimes these coarser-grained rocks also contain spherules, which are of great interest to the science team as they provide clues about the formation process of these layered rocks.
Perseverance first examined a dark layer on Puncheon Rock, which showed signs of abrasive wear. It then examined a dark layer on Killed Apple Rock, near Sally Bay, but failed to find a suitable surface for abrasive wear. So, while the team searched for other locations to study coarse-grained aggregates and spherules, Perseverance headed south to Port Anson.
Port Anson was interesting because, from orbit, a clear contact was visible between the light layers of Wych Hazel Hill and a distinct layer beneath it. And while the rocks beneath the Port Anson contact do show interesting compositional differences from those of Wych Hazel Hill, they weren’t the same coarse-grained rocks.
This image of the Hare Bay abrasion surface was acquired by the Perseverance rover using the SHERLOC WATSON (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organic and Chemical Detection, and Wide-Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering) camera, located on a turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. The image was acquired on April 18, 2025 (sol 1479, or Martian day 1479, of the Mars 2020 mission) at 12:53:57 PM local time. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Floating rocks, sand ripples and vast distances are just some of the sights to be seen in the latest high-resolution panorama captured by a six-wheeled scientist.
NASA’s Perseverance rover imaging team took advantage of clear skies on the Red Planet to create one of the sharpest panoramas ever taken. The mosaic, composed of 96 images taken at a location the science team calls “Falbrin,” shows a rock perched atop a sand ripple, the boundary between two geological formations, and hills up to 65 kilometers away. In the color-enhanced version, the Martian sky appears remarkably clear and deceptively blue, while in the natural-color version, it appears reddish.
The rover’s Mastcam-Z camera captured the images on May 26, 2025, the 1516th Martian day (sol) of the Perseverance mission, which launched in February 2021 from the floor of Jezero Crater. Perseverance reached the crater’s summit in late 2024.
“The relatively clear sky provides a clear view of the surrounding terrain,” said Jim Bell, Mastcam-Z principal investigator at Arizona State University in Tempe. “And in this particular mosaic, we enhanced the color contrast, which highlights the differences in terrain and sky.”
One detail that caught the scientific team’s attention was a large rock located on a dark, crescent-shaped sand wave to the right of the mosaic’s center, approximately 4.4 meters from the rover. Geologists call this type of rock a “float rock,” as it likely formed elsewhere and was transported to its current location. It’s unknown whether the rock was deposited here by a landslide, water, or wind, but the scientific team hypothesizes that it arrived here before the sand wave formed.
In this natural-color version of the Falbrin panorama, the colors have not been enhanced, and the sky appears more reddish. Perseverance’s 43rd rock chip (the white spot at center left) is still visible. The 96 images stitched together to create this panoramic image were taken on May 26, 2025. NASA
The bright white circle just left of center, near the bottom of the image, represents an abrasive wear mark. This is the 43rd rock Perseverance has processed since landing on Mars. This shallow, 5-centimeter-wide area was created by the rover’s drill and allows the science team to see what lies beneath the rock’s weathered, dust-covered surface before deciding whether to drill a core sample to store it in one of the mission’s titanium tubes.
The rover conducted this test on May 22, 2025, and two days later, it conducted a detailed analysis of Martian rocks and soil using instruments mounted on its “manipulator.” The science team wanted to learn more about Falbrin, as it is located in a terrain that may be among the oldest ever explored by Perseverance—perhaps even older than Jezero Crater.
The rover’s tracks can be seen at the right edge of the mosaic. About 90 meters away, they turn left, disappearing from view at the site of a previous geological stop, which the science team calls “Kenmore.”
Just above the center of the mosaic, from one edge to the other, a transition from lighter to darker rocks is visible. This is the boundary, or contact, between two geological formations. The flat, lighter rocks closer to the rover are rich in the mineral olivine, while the darker rocks further away are thought to represent much older clay-bearing rocks.
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