Tracks Tell Tale of Perseverance's Crater Rim Climb

A CLOSER LOOK

One of the navigation cameras aboard NASA's Perseverance captured this image of the tracks made by the rover during its climb up the rim of Jezero Crater on Oct. 11, 2024, the 1,295th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The rover's tracks, seen disappearing into the distance, have churned up the regolith (broken rock and sand) on the surface, indicating high slip. The edges of the tracks are not straight or smooth, which indicates cross-track sliding during the drive. On less slippery terrain, the tracks have well defined lines from the grousers on the rover wheels. The distant river channel seen at the upper left of image is Neretva Vallis, which fed Jezero Crater with fresh water billions of years ago. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the sea

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