Perseverance's Path to 'Bright Angel' in Mars' Jezero Crater

Superimposed on an image taken by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this map shows the path taken by the agency's Perseverance Mars rover between Jan. 31, 2024, and June 11, shortly after it arrived at a geologic area of interest the science team calls "Bright Angel." The route where the rover paralleled the Neretva Vallis river channel is depicted in white. The portion of the route where the rover was inside the river channel is depicted in pale blue. The dots along the white line signify locations where the rover stopped after completing a traverse. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by BAE Systems, in Boulder, Colorado. JPL manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26334