NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

The first three rovers on Mars were powered by the Sun but the next two were too big and power hungry for that, so they use a power source like on the first Mars landers. Here’s how red-hot pellets of plutonium power Curiosity and Perseverance.

Ingenuity helicopter flew for a total of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 48 seconds over 1,004 days on Mars, flying more than 17 kilometers (11 miles) during its 72 flights.

Imaged here by one of the rover's MastCam-Z cameras (zoom set at 34mm). The photograph was captured during mission Sol 47 (April 7, 2021) shortly after deployment.

12 days after this image was taken JPL flew the helicopter for the first time during April 19, 2021

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

In this image, taken on June 1, 2019, an engineer in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility's High Bay 1 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, can be seen working on the exposed belly of the Mars 2020 rover. It has been inverted to allow JPL's engineers and technicians easier access. The front of the rover is on camera left. The engineer is inspecting wiring directly above the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument. MOXIE will demonstrate a way that future explorers might produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere for propellant and for breathing.

In the foreground, just to the left of center and distinctive because of the relative lack of wiring, is the body unit for the SuperCam instrument. The mast unit for SuperCam instrument, which will provide imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy from its high perch at the top of the rover's remote sensing mast was installed June 25.

To the far left, covered by a red-colored shield, is the bay where the Adaptive Caching Assembly (ACA) will document, analyze and process for storage samples of Mars rock and soil for future return to Earth.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

How can you communicate with Mars spacecraft when the Sun is in the way? Learn more about 'solar conjunction' in this 60-second video.

TRANSCRIPT

About every two years, Earth and Mars wind up on opposite sides of the sun. Thatʼs called “solar conjunction.”

It's like being on either side of a huge bonfire: we canʼt see Mars, and our landers, rovers, and orbiters canʼt see us.

If our spacecraft send back signals, charged particles from the sun could interfere, causing gaps in the data that reach us.

Thatʼs not a big deal: if somethingʼs missing, it can always be resent later. But, no way do we want to lose data when we send up commands. Receiving a partial command could confuse the spacecraft, putting them in grave danger!

So, mission controllers plan ahead by sending up simple to-do lists, including regular health check ups.

Back home, this break in communications lets team members catch up on other work... or take a well-deserved vacation!

Solar conjunction lasts just a few weeks. Then itʼs back to the grindstone... on Earth and on Mars.

Engineers at JPL are certifying the Perseverance rover to drive up to 100 kilometers.

The inactive aeolian megaripple, “Hazyview,” that Perseverance studied while passing through the “Honeyguide” area. NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image on Dec. 5, 2025 (Sol 1704) at the local mean solar time of 12:33:53, using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Noah Martin, Ph.D. student and Candice Bedford, Research Scientist at Purdue University

While much of Perseverance’s work focuses on ancient rocks that record Mars’ long-lost rivers and lakes, megaripples offer a rare opportunity to examine processes that are still shaping the surface today. Megaripples are sand ripples up to 2 meters (about 6.5 feet) tall that are mainly built and modified by wind. However, when water in the atmosphere interacts with dust on the ripple surface, a salty, dusty crust can form. When this happens, it is much harder for the wind to move or shape the megaripple. As such, megaripples on Mars are largely considered inactive, standing as records of past wind regimes and atmospheric water interactions over time. However, some have shown signs of movement, and it is possible that periods of high wind speeds may erode or reactivate these deposits again.

Despite Mars’ thin atmosphere today (2% of the Earth’s atmospheric density), wind is one of the main drivers of change at the surface, eroding local bedrock into sand-sized grains and transporting these grains across the ripple field. As a result, megaripple studies help us understand how wind has shaped the surface in Mars’ most recent history and support planning for future human missions, as the chemistry and cohesion of Martian soils will influence everything from mobility to resource extraction.

Following the successful investigation of the dusty, inactive megaripples at “Kerrlaguna,” Perseverance recently explored a more expansive field of megaripples called “Honeyguide.” This region hosts some of the largest megaripples Perseverance has seen along its traverse so far, making it an ideal location for a comprehensive study of these features. The megaripples at “Honeyguide” rise higher, extend farther, and have sharply defined crests with more uniform orientation compared to those at “Kerrlaguna.” The consistent orientation of the megaripples at “Honeyguide” suggests that winds in this area have blown predominantly from the same direction (north-south) for a long period of time.

At “Honeyguide,” Perseverance studied the “Hazyview” megaripple, where over 50 observations were taken across the SuperCam, Mastcam-Z, MEDA, PIXL and WATSON instruments, looking for grain movement, signs of early morning frost, and changes in mineralogy from crest to trough. The investigation of the “Hazyview” bedform builds directly on the results from “Kerrlaguna” and represents the most detailed look yet at these intriguing wind-formed deposits. As Perseverance continues its journey on the crater rim, these observations will provide a valuable reference for interpreting other wind-blown features and for understanding how Mars continues to change, one grain of sand at a time.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this view of a location nicknamed “Mont Musard” on September 8, 2025.

Made up of three images, the panorama also captures another region, “Lac de Charmes,” where the rover’s team will be looking for more rock core samples to collect in the year ahead.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Selfie Time. Sol 1711, December 12, 2025. SHERLOC WATSON camera. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/pixelart/p/1564219/perseverance-landing-but-instead-of-the-giant-parachute-it-s-ingenuity

Further post-drive info for mission context

Updated context map of Percy’s whereabouts for this sol below. The outer rim of Jezero Crater is on the right. The sites of the most recent rock abrasions, #50 and #51, are labelled in red. The rover’s current position is marked with a cross:

Detailed map of the rover's whereabouts this sol below:

Further post-drive info for mission context

Updated context map of Percy’s whereabouts for this sol below. The nearest portion of the Jezero Crater outer rim is on the lower right. The sites of the most recent rock abrasions, #50 and #51, are labelled in red. The rover’s current position is marked with a cross:

Detailed map of the rover's whereabouts below:

Left Mastcam-Z camera, acquired on December 7, 2025 (Sol 1706) 13:37 LMST. Processed / Cropped Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

R-MastCam-Z - Sol 1703 - December 04 2025 Processed cropped. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Sol 1704 (December 5, 2025)

Here's a post drive NavCam acquired after the 40 minute drive to the north, we can see some of the tracks behind the rover in this image looking south.

Check the comments for the drive details and the revised map showing the new location

Image credits NASA/JPL-Caltech

A NavCam mosaic assembled from 6 tiles acquired after the drive to site 82.1486. The rover dropped 54 meters in elevation during the drive on December 2, 2025. Full details of the drive are attached, the maps are included in the comments section of this post

SHERLOC WATSON Cropped composite of three images assembled using MS-ICE. Looking at the other images gathered, it appears ad though they were inspecting the large round SuperCam window. The rover fires its laser at rocks and soils through that window, using its optics to analyze its targets by optical emission, and to acquire images of the targets using its RMI camera (Remote Microscopic Imager). November 28, 2025 (Sol 1697) Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

MastCam-Z: Checking out the dark capping rocks on a nearby hill, before the rover drove to the southwest later in the day.

Image acquired during sol 1687. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/Kevin M Gill