NASA’s Persistence rover will soon be on its way to its next destination tuesday: A geological junction known as Jurabi Point may receive another crack as it pierces the Martian rock.
Primary task Persistence This is to look for possible signs of life around this once watery area.
As part of this effort, the rolling robot heads to a three-way junction called Jurabi Point, where boulder-rich geology meets sedimentary rock and rim rock. This is of great interest to researchers before Perseverance lands on the surface of Mars in February 2021, Purdue University planetary researcher and Perseverance team member Athanasios Klitaras wrote in an article. NASA blog post. Examining the intersection of these three geological features can help scientists determine the relative ages of the features, Klitaras explained.
Related: A new video shows the Perseverance rover’s Mars stomping grounds as it flies over
Plus, when it comes to Jurabi Point, persistence might get another chance to drill a sample of Martian rock. Although the rover successfully collected several samples from the soft rock, Perseverance’s last attempt to crack a hard boulder — the „Dragon’s Egg” — in Jezero’s Lost Lake area failed.
Perseverance’s stop at Jurapi Point is part of the Margin campaign, which began in September when the rover reached a geological feature known as the Mandu Wall after a perilous 1,150-foot (350-meter) journey.
The purpose of the Margin campaign is to explore the outer rim of the Jezero Crater, to examine the carbonate materials there to see how these rocks formed, how they have changed, and whether they contain biosignatures that indicate Mars once survived in this area. The lake overflowed about 4 billion years ago. This is the fourth section Tuesday 2020 Mission, in which The persistence rover is an important elementand lasts eight Earth months (about 230 Martian days).
Before Perseverance heads to this Martian geological rendezvous, it will complete an investigation of bent rocks at its current location. Perseverance is currently imaging these rocks with its Mastcam-Z camera. Using remote science instruments such as Supercam, the rover is also studying the weathering of the sedimentary rock in the region.
After its trip to Jurapi Point, Persistence will head west, climbing up Jezero to observe how the fringe rocks change as altitude increases. Later, the edge campaign visits the Neretva Wallis, an ancient river channel, where the rover will study the light-colored rocks on the channel wall.