Geological, multispectral, and meteorological imaging results from the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover in Jezero crater

Creators: Bell, James F., III; Maki, Justin N.; Alwmark, Sanna; Ehlmann, Bethany L.; Fagents, Sarah A.; Grotzinger, John P.; Gupta, Sanjeev; Hayes, Alexander; Herkenhoff, Ken E.; Horgan, Briony H. N.; Johnson, Jeffrey R.; Kinch, Kjartan B.; Lemmon, Mark T.; Madsen, Morten B.; Núñez, Jorge I.; Paar, Gerhard; Rice, Melissa; Rice, James W., Jr.; Schmitz, Nicole; Sullivan, Robert; Vaughan, Alicia; Wolff, Mike J.; Bechtold, Andreas; Bosak, Tanja; Duflot, Louise E.; Fairén, Alberto G.; Garczynski, Brad; Jaumann, Ralf; Merusi, Marco; Million, Chase; Ravanis, Eleni; Shuster, David L.; Simon, Justin; St. Clair, Michael; Tate, Christian; Walter, Sebastian; Weiss, Benjamin; Bailey, Alyssa M.; Bertrand, Tanguy; Beyssac, Olivier; Brown, Adrian J.; Caballo-Perucha, Piluca; Caplinger, Michael A.; Caudill, Christy M.; Cary, Francesca; Cisneros, Ernest; Cloutis, Edward A.; Cluff, Nathan; Corlies, Paul; Crawford, Kelsie; Curtis, Sabrina; Deen, Robert; Dixon, Darian; Donaldson, Christopher; Barrington, Megan; Ficht, Michelle; Fleron, Stephanie; Hansen, Michael; Harker, David; Howson, Rachel; Huggett, Joshua; Jacob, Samantha; Jensen, Elsa; Jensen, Ole B.; Jodhpurkar, Mohini; Joseph, Jonathan; Juarez, Christian; Kah, Linda C.; Kanine, Oak; Kristensen, Jessica; Kubacki, Tex; Lapo, Kristiana; Magee, Angela; Maimone, Michael; Mehall, Greg L.; Mehall, Laura; Mollerup, Jess; Viúdez-Moreiras, Daniel; Paris, Kristen; Powell, Kathryn E.; Preusker, Frank; Proton, Jon; Rojas, Corrine; Sallurday, Danny; Saxton, Kim; Scheller, Eva; Seeger, Christina; Starr, Mason; Stein, Nathan; Turenne, Nathalie; Van Beek, Jason K.; Winhold, Andrew G.; Yingling, Rachel

Abstract

Perseverance's Mastcam-Z instrument provides high-resolution stereo and multispectral images with a unique combination of spatial resolution, spatial coverage, and wavelength coverage along the rover's traverse in Jezero crater, Mars. Images reveal rocks consistent with an igneous (including volcanic and/or volcaniclastic) and/or impactite origin and limited aqueous alteration, including polygonally fractured rocks with weathered coatings; massive boulder-forming bedrock consisting of mafic silicates, ferric oxides, and/or iron-bearing alteration minerals; and coarsely layered outcrops dominated by olivine. Pyroxene dominates the iron-bearing mineralogy in the fine-grained regolith, while olivine dominates the coarse-grained regolith. Solar and atmospheric imaging observations show significant intra- and intersol variations in dust optical depth and water ice clouds, as well as unique examples of boundary layer vortex action from both natural (dust devil) and Ingenuity helicopter–induced dust lifting. High-resolution stereo imaging also provides geologic context for rover operations, other instrument observations, and sample selection, characterization, and confirmation.

Additional Information

© 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). We are grateful to and inspired by the hundreds of engineers, scientists, managers, administrators, and others around the world who contributed to the design, building, testing, launch, and successful landing of the Mars 2020 mission's Perseverance rover and its science instruments, as well as the hundreds of engineering and science colleagues who contributed to Mastcam-Z design, fabrication, and testing and who are actively contributing to mission operations on Mars to this day. We also thank K. Edgett for detailed reviews and suggestions that significantly improved this manuscript, R. Barnes for assistance with 3D modeling visualizations and analyses, and Y. Liu for advice on the search for potential volcanic constructs within Jezero crater. Funding for the U.S.-based authors of this work was provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Mars 2020 Project, either directly or via subcontracts from the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Arizona State University (subcontract 1511125). S.A. was supported by the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2017-06388). E.A.C. was supported by the Canadian Space Agency (grant no. 19PACOI04) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (grant no. RGPIN-2021-02995 and RGPIN-2015-04582). G.P. and A.B. were funded via ESA PRODEX contract PEA 4000117520 Mars 2020 Mastcam-Z 3D Vision. Participation by K.B.K., M.B.M., S.F., M.H., O.B.J., and J.K. was made possible by support from Carlsberg Foundation grant CF19-0023, the Danish taxpayers, and Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II. M.Me. is supported by the E.U.'s Horizon 2020 programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 801199. A.G.F. was supported by the European Research Council, consolidator grant no. 818602. Author contributions: Conceptualization: All authors. Methodology: J.F.B., J.N.M., S.A., J.P.G., S.G., K.E.H., B.H.N.H., M.T.L., J.I.N., J.W.R., A.V., M.J.W., E.R., and G.L.M. Software: J.N.M., A.H., K.B.K., M.T.L., M.B.M., G.P., M.R., A.B., C.M., M.S.C., C.T., S.W., A.M.B., P.C.-P., E.C., N.C., P.C., R.D., J.J., K.P., K.E.P., J.P., A.G.W., and O.B.J. Validation: A.H., K.B.K., M.T.L., M.B.M., M.R., A.V., L.E.D., M.Me., C.M., M.S.C., K.C., S.J., L.M., K.P., K.E.P., C.R., and A.G.W. Formal analysis: A.H., K.E.H., K.B.K., M.T.L., G.P., M.R., M.Me., C.M., M.S.C., P.C., and A.G.W. Investigation: J.F.B., J.N.M., S.A., S.A.F., S.G., A.H., K.E.H., B.H.N.H., J.R.J., K.B.K., M.T.L., J.I.N., M.R., J.W.R., N.S., R.S., A.V., M.J.W., L.E.D., B.G., M.Me., C.M., E.R., D.L.S., J.S., M.S.C., C.T., A.M.B., C.M.C., F.C., E.C., P.C., K.C., D.D., C.D., M.B., M.F., S.F., M.H., D.H., R.H., J.H., S.J., E.J., M.J., J.J., C.J., L.C.K., O.K., J.K., T.K., K.L., A.M., M.Ma., L.M., J.M., K.P., K.E.P., J.P., C.R., D.S., K.S., C.H.S., M.S., N.S., N.T., J.V.B., A.G.W., and R.Y. Resources: J.F.B., J.N.M., A.H., K.B.K., M.B.M., G.P., M.R., M.Me., C.M., M.S.C., C.T., P.C.-P., M.A.C., E.C., N.C., P.C., R.D., J.J., K.P., and J.P. Data curation: A.H., M.Me., A.M.B., E.C., R.D., and K.P. Writing—original draft: J.F.B., S.A., J.P.G., S.G., A.H., K.E.H., B.H.N.H., J.R.J., K.B.K., M.T.L., M.R., J.W.R., and M.J.W. Writing—review and editing: J.F.B., S.A., S.A.F., J.P.G., S.G., A.H., K.E.H., B.H.N.H., J.R.J., K.B.K., M.T.L., J.I.N., M.R., J.W.R., R.S., M.J.W., and E.R. Project administration/supervision: J.F.B., J.N.M., and G.L.M. Visualization: J.F.B., A.H., B.H.N.H., K.B.K., M.T.L., G.P., M.R., J.W.R., A.V., M.J.W., A.B., B.G., and C.T. Funding acquisition: J.F.B., J.N.M., K.B.K., M.B.M., G.P., N.S., A.G.F., R.J., E.A.C., and D.V.-M. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. All Mars 2020 raw and calibrated imaging data used in this paper are available via the Planetary Data System (PDS) Geosciences Node at https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/mars2020/. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Resource type: Journal Article
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Published in: Science Advances, 8(47), Art. No. eabo4856, ISSN: 2375-2548.