Perseverance set to begin third year on Mars at Jezero Crater

Perseverance set to begin third year on Mars at Jezero Crater
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 20, 2023

NASA's Perseverance rover will celebrate its second anniversary on the surface of Mars Saturday, Feb. 18. Since arriving at Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been examining geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet that are central to the first step of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign. Scientists want to study Martian samples with powerful lab equipment on Earth to search for signs of ancient microbial life and to better understand the processes that have shaped the surface of Mars.

"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."

In addition to the rock cores, Perseverance has collected two regolith samples and one atmospheric sample, and it has sealed three "witness" tubes. (Learn more about all 18 samples taken so far.)

Numbers play a big role in the life of a Mars rover mission, not just because the team includes an impressive quantity of scientists (who don't usually mind numbers) and engineers (who love them), but because statistics provide the best and most efficient glimpse of vehicle trends and performance.

For instance, the mission can tell you not only that the rover has driven 9.3 miles (14.97 kilometers), but also that as of Feb. 14, its left front wheel has performed 9,423 revolutions. They can tell you not only that the MOXIE (short for Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) technology demonstration has 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 - has puffed 62 times to clear residual dust and particles from rock-abrading activities.

"We deal with a lot of numbers," said Perseverance deputy project manager Steve Lee from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "We collect them, evaluate them, compare them, and more times than we want to admit, bore our loved ones with them during a family dinner."

With that, here are some the most up-to-date statistics regarding Perseverance's first two Earth years of Jezero surface operations. Some will seem obscure, while others are more immediate, but they all underscore how productive the mission has been.

"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, when Perseverance marks its second landing anniversary, Mars will be 97 million miles (156 million kilometers) from Earth. The weather at Jezero Crater is expected to be sunny with a high of about 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 degrees Celsius). The rover has instructions to perform remote science and take images of a place in Jezero Crater called "Jenkins Gap." And people on the mission team are expected to take at least one moment to recall where they were and how they felt two years ago, when Perseverance landed on Mars.