Perseverance Rover of NASA to Continue Third Year in Jezero Crater

Saturday, Feb. 18, NASA's Perseverance rover will mark its second anniversary on Mars' surface. Since its arrival in Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been examining geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet as part of the first step in the NASA/ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign. Scientists want to analyze Martian samples in powerful labs on Earth in order to look for traces of ancient microbial life and better understand the processes that have sculpted Mars' surface.

This image of the floor of Jezero Crater was taken by one of the Navcam imagers aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Feb. 5, the 698th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Since arrival at Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been investigating geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet as part of the first step of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign. Scientists want to examine Martian materials in powerful labs on Earth in order to look for traces of ancient microbial life and better understand the processes that created Mars' surface.

“Anniversaries are a time of reflection and celebration, and the Perseverance team is doing a lot of both,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena. “Perseverance has inspected and performed data collection on hundreds of intriguing geologic features, collected 15 rock cores, and created the first sample depot on another world. With the start of the next science campaign, known as ‘Upper Fan,’ on Feb. 15, we expect to be adding to that tally very soon.”

Perseverance has gathered two regolith samples and one atmosphere sample, in addition to the rock cores, and has sealed three "witness" tubes.

Statistics are important in the life of a Mars rover mission, not only because the crew contains a large number of scientists (who don't mind numbers) and engineers (who love them), but also because statistics provide the greatest and most efficient view of vehicle trends and performance.

For example, the mission can tell you not only how far the rover has traveled (9.3 miles/14.97 kilometers), but also how many revolutions its left front wheel has made as of Feb. 14. They can tell you that the MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) technology demonstration produced 3.25 ounces (92.11 grams) of oxygen, but also that the Gas Dust Removal Tool (gDRT) - the little gas-puffing device on the robotic arm - puffed 62 times to clear residual dust and particles from rock-abrasive activities.

After that, here are some of the most recent statistics on Perseverance's first two Earth years of Jezero surface activities. Some will appear subtle, while others will appear more immediate, but they all highlight how fruitful the mission has been.

The rover carries seven scientific instruments, and they've been making progress.

• Laser shots fired by the SuperCam science instrument: 230,554
• Soundings performed by the RIMFAX (Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment) ground-penetrating radar to study underground rock layers: 676,828
• Mars audio recordings taken by SuperCam’s microphone: 662
• Hours of Mars weather data recorded by MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer): 15,769.1
• Hours the X-ray filament on the PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) instrument has operated: 298.2
• Laser shots by the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument: 4,337,010
• SHERLOC spectroscopy observations: 33

The rover features a small sample handling arm inside its belly, in addition to the large drill-toting robotic arm.

• Times the rover’s main robotic arm has been unstowed and stowed: 64
• Times the drill on that arm has touched Mars: 39
• Times drill bits have been exchanged: 48
• Abrasions performed by the drill: 17
• Distance the rover’s sample handling arm’s z-stage has traveled up and down: 676.1 feet (206.1 meters).

Persistence comes with seven scientific cameras and nine engineering cameras. More than 166,000 photos have been captured by these cameras. Here are the image totals for a few of them.

• Mastcam-Z: 86,660
• Navigation Cameras: 21,571
• Front Hazard-Avoidance Cameras: 3,909
• Rear Hazard-Avoidance Cameras: 474
• Sampling and Caching System Camera:1,321
• SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager: 2,825
• SHERLOC WATSON: 5,754
• SHERLOC Context Imager: 2,260
• MEDA SkyCam: 1,831
• PIXL Micro-Context Camera: 1,012
• Entry, Descent, and Landing Cameras: 33,279

The descent stage holding NASAs Perseverance rover can be seen falling thorough the Martian atmosphere in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021, by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. An ellipse indicates where Perseverance touched down.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

“Behind each number is a lot of thought and effort from a very talented group of women and men on the Perseverance team,” said Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager at JPL. “We have come a long way together, and I can’t think of a better group to work with as we go even farther.”

In fact, Perseverance will be 97 million miles (156 million kilometers) from Earth on its second landing anniversary. The weather forecast for Jezero Crater is sunny with a high of roughly 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 degrees Celsius). The rover is programmed to conduct remote science and acquire photographs of "Jenkins Gap" in Jezero Crater. Now the mission team is anticipated to pause for at least a moment to remember where they were and how they felt two years ago, when Perseverance landed on Mars.