Perseverance is beginning its fifth scientific campaign, called “Northern Rim”, with the ambition of deciphering the early history of Mars. Just that. After four previous campaigns exploring different areas of Jezero Crater, the scientific team is now focusing on the northwest part of the rim, a geological territory that the rover’s wheels have never trod before.
Ken Farley, project scientist, explains that the campaign “ brings entirely new scientific riches, as Perseverance explores fundamentally new geology “. He continues that she “ marks the transition between rocks that partially filled Jezero Crater when it was formed by a massive impact about 3.9 billion years ago and rocks from the depths of Mars, which were thrown upward to form the edge of the crater after the impact ».
The first stop, Witch Hazel Hill, offers over 100 meters of stratified outcrops. Candice Bedford of Purdue University welcomes a campaign that “ gets off to a flying start, as Witch Hazel Hill represents a 330-foot stratified outcrop, where each layer is like a page from the book of Martian history “. The planned route includes an exploration of Lake Charmes, then the study of megabreccias, potential remains of a rocky substrate broken during the impact mentioned by Ken Farley.
Swiss
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