Arrived on Mars in February 2021, a few years after its big brother Curiositythe rover Perseverance has just started its fifth mission! After the campaigns Crater Floor, Delta Front, Upper Fan et Margin Unitmake way for Crater RimThis time it is about exploring the edge of the Jezero crater.
But before that, he has to get out of the crater and begin his long climb to the edge. According to the Nasathe great diversity of rocks present on the ground up to the summit makes this mission the most ambitious campaign the team has attempted so far.
What tools are used to distinguish rocks?
The only downside is that scientists also have less information from the orbiter data than in previous campaigns. Why? Because this area of the crater rim does not have the high-resolution hyperspectral imagery of CRISM that had made it possible to better distinguish the geological units inside the crater.
In orbit since 2005, CRISM takes images in hundreds of visible and near-infrared “colors” of reflected sunlight to distinguish between different minerals on the surface and in atmospheric gases. Scientists use these images to study the composition of Mars’ rock formations, as well as track changes in the planet’s atmosphere and measure the ice cycle between the atmosphere and the polar ice caps.
Finding the traces of the impact
Which means that it is the Mastcam-Z multispectral imaging and the long-range SuperCam imaging that will be particularly useful in discovering compositional differences between the rocks as the rover travels to the edge of the crater. A pair of optics that had proven invaluable in the Neretva Vallis region.
NASA is talking about a stage called ” Dox Castle » (Dox Castle), where Perseverance will study the contact between the flanks and the rim of the crater. The space agency anticipates finding gravelly materials there that could be the first traces of deposits generated during the impact that created the Jezero crater itself.
