NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

After the last two attempts to collect a rock sample came up empty, Perseverance moved on to a different location. This time the drill extracted a sample of a rock that’s so unusual that Perseverance is investigating it in ways never before tried.

I've linked to Landru 79's post on Mastodon as the movie was too big to post here.

Left Navigation Camera (Navcam) Sols 1420, 1422 & 1425

Credits: NASA/JPL/j. Roger

The Sky Crane after delivering #Perseverance to the Martian ground. Umbilical cut. Ingenuity held tight under the rover's belly. Exactly 4 years ago.

De-bayered, processed EDL_RUCAM RMC: 0.0000 (prelanding) Sol: 0

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/65dBnoise

Source to original image and his post on Mastodon

Perseverance’s drives over the last few weeks have doubled back several times. Why such an unconventional route? Team scientists have been delighted to find new kinds of rocks that could be the oldest ever found on Mars and are eager to collect samples.

Perseverance embarked on the Crater Rim Campaign in search of ancient uplifted rock, to better understand the geologic processes occurring early in Mars’ history, and search for ancient habitable environments. Recent discoveries have not disappointed: so far in this portion of the rim, every outcrop that the rover has taken a close look at using the science instruments on its robotic arm has ended up being something new. As explained in the previous update, after acquiring the “Silver Mountain” core, which is rich in the mineral pyroxene, Perseverance approached a nearby rock that had signatures of the mineral serpentine, fittingly nicknamed “Serpentine Lake.” Following this, the rover used its abrasion tool to clean the rock of dust and coatings for detailed scientific interrogation, and the team was wowed by the intriguing rock texture, which resembles “cookies & cream” dessert (see photo above), and the very high abundance of minerals like serpentine, which form in the presence of water.

After finishing that investigation, the operations team decided to have Perseverance head back along its path once more to the site of its first abrasion in this part of the rim, named “Cat Arm Reservoir,” to acquire a sample. Results from that earlier analysis showed a rock texture with coarse pyroxene and feldspar crystals consistent with an igneous origin. However, the sample tube turned up empty. What happened? Perseverance has encountered this problem before: flashback to our first ever coring attempt. It’s not a common occurrence, but sometimes the rocks Perseverance tries to sample are so weak that upon coring they essentially disintegrate into a powder instead of remaining in the tube. The rover drove to a nearby spot and tried again, but when a second attempt to core this rock did not retain any sample, the team decided to move on.

This week, Perseverance will return once again to the site of the Serpentine Lake abrasion patch to acquire a core of this fascinating rock, which records intense alteration by water. The team hopes that it will prove strong enough to acquire a core, and if successful, Perseverance may perform more scans on the abrasion patch. Afterward, the plan is to drive downhill to an area called “Broom Point,” home to a spectacular sequence of layered rock, where I’m sure more surprises and exciting scientific discoveries await.

Written by Athanasios Klidaras, Ph.D. student at Purdue University

After measurement the sample was pushed deeper into the tube, but it still appears to be a perfectly viable sample

A new sample hole aside an earlier abrasion patch at site 69.0, imaged on Sol 1420 (Feb 17, 2025). This partial Front HazCam was cropped and roughly processed from 2 tiles. More images will arrive soon to provide a wider view. The CacheCam images will be eagerly awaited to see if they managed to retain a rock sample, having lost the rock cores in the last two attempts.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Perseverance drove back to the location of what could be one of the most significant discoveries of the mission. The plan this time was to collect a sample for return to Earth, but Mars was not ready to participate in that plan.

Post-drive tiled NavCam looking at the old coring site - NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sol 1413 (February 10, 2025) Images are from one of Perseverance's Navigation cameras (NavCam) and its Sample Caching System Camera (CacheCam) at site 68.142. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Finnaly got around to mapping again. Quick and dirty, as usual, so I'll apologise for any mistakes.

Post drive NavCam from site 68.142 (sol 1141 - February 7, 2025) We can see the older abrasion and the tailings from the drilled hole. I'm assuming they have likely moved to try again to obtain a rock core from this location. Map and full drive details in the comments. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UofA.

1409 - CacheCam image (Feb 05, 2025) Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The above image is a mosaic processed from 12 post-drive tiles acquired by the front left HazCam.

Map

Drive Data

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover continues to live up to its name, pushing forward in search of ancient Martian secrets. Following a brief period of system verification and remote testing, our operations team is back at full strength, and Perseverance has been hard at work uncovering new geological insights.

We began our latest campaign at “Mill Brook,” a site surrounded by dusty, fine-grained paver stones. Here, we conducted an abrasion experiment at “Steve’s Trail,” allowing our remote sensing instruments to capture a before-and-after analysis of the rock surface. SuperCam (SCAM) used its LIBS and VISIR systems to investigate “Bad Weather Pond,” while Mastcam-Z (ZCAM) imaged the entire workspace. These observations provide invaluable data on the composition, texture, and potential alteration of these rocks.

After wrapping up at Mill Brook — including a ZCAM multispectral scan of “Berry Hill” — Perseverance took a 140-meter drive (about 459 feet) to “Blue Hill” at “Shallow Bay,” a site of immense scientific interest. The rocks here are rich in low-calcium pyroxene (LCP), making them one of the most intriguing sample targets of the mission so far.

The significance of Blue Hill extends beyond just this one location. The pyroxene-rich nature of the site suggests a potential link to a much larger rock unit visible in orbital HiRISE images. Given that this may be the only exposure of these materials within our planned traverse, our science team prioritized sampling this Noachian-aged outcrop, a rare window into Mars’ deep past.

And now, we are thrilled to announce:

Perseverance has successfully cored and sealed a 2.9-centimeter (1.1-inch) rock sample from Blue Hill, officially named “Silver Mountain.” This marks our first Noachian-aged outcrop sample, an important milestone in our mission to uncover the geological history of Jezero Crater. Since Shallow Bay-Shoal Brook is the only location along our planned route where this regional low-calcium pyroxene unit was identified from orbit, this sample is a one-of-a-kind treasure for future Mars Sample Return analyses.

As we enter the Year of the Snake, it seems fitting that serpentine-bearing rocks have slithered into our focus! While Blue Hill remains a top priority, the tactical team has been highly responsive to the science team’s overwhelming interest in the nearby serpentine-bearing outcrops. These rocks, which may reveal critical clues about past water activity and potential habitability, are now part of our exploration strategy.

Between our Noachian-aged pyroxene sample and the newfound focus on serpentine-bearing rocks, our journey through Jezero Crater has never been more exciting. Each step — each scan, each drive, each core sample — brings us closer to understanding Mars’ complex past.

As Perseverance continues to, well, persevere, and as we embrace the Year of the Snake, we can’t help but marvel at the poetic alignment of science and tradition. Here’s to a year of wisdom, resilience, and groundbreaking discoveries — both on Earth and 225 million kilometers (140 million miles) away!

Stay tuned as we unravel the next chapter in Mars exploration!

Written by Nicolas Randazzo, Postdoctoral Scientist at University of Alberta

Post-drive NavCam assembled from 6 overlapping tiles.

The rover is less than 10 meters from a site it first visited about 6 weeks ago (after it left the crater on sol 1359)

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Episode 200 On its first drive after the LA wildfires shutdown operations, Perseverance backtracked uphill to a slab of outcrop it investigated previously. Turns out there’s something here that warranted the first new core sample in six months.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This latest abrasion patch is the third we've taken on Witch Hazel Hill, on the exterior rim of Jezero Crater, all within the last month. For comparison:

• Abrasion patch 33, sol 1375 (where Percy subsequently grabbed that crumbly core sample just this week)
• Abrasion patch 34, sol 1395

Percy is getting busy!

post drive tiled navcam

In a research article [...] a team led by Brian Jackson (Boise State University) described how they used information from Ingenuity to measure the speed and direction of Mars’s winds.

Previously, Jackson had carried out field experiments on Earth with a small drone to show that wind parameters could be extracted from an aircraft’s attitude data. Building on that proof-of-concept study, Jackson’s team used models to understand how Ingenuity’s attitude would change in response to winds of varying speed and direction.

The team calculated wind speeds ranging from 4.1 to 24.3 meters per second [...] Compared to meteorological models, the measured speeds tended to be higher than expected and the wind directions did not always match. These differences might reflect the influence of localized geological features, like craters and scarps that whip the wind in highly variable directions, that the models do not fully capture.

Jackson’s team found it unlikely that the higher speeds measured at Ingenuity’s higher altitude were the result of random fluctuations; instead, they proposed a physical explanation rooted in the aerodynamic conditions upwind of the rover and helicopter.

Accurate measurements of wind speeds on Mars can help scientists investigate our neighboring planet’s surface processes and dust transport, as well as help to plan safe entry, descent, and landing for future missions.