That won't happen for at least 60 days on the surface of Mars. 'The science team is already thinking a lot about this,' said Hallie Gengl, instrument data systems operation lead for the Multimission Image-Processing Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Īs for the mission's helicopter, Ingenuity, engineers want to gather more information about the local Martian weather before the vehicle takes its first flight. NASA’s Perseverance rover has been busy since its harrowing touchdown in Mars’ Jezero Crater this past February. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. An engineering image taken to assess the vehicle's wheels, for example, showed curious-looking rocks in the background. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASAs Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Perseverance landed about 2km from an ancient delta that scientists are interested in exploring for signs of ancient life, and the rover could begin driving there in about eight Martian days.Īlready, scientists are finding things in the first images from Perseverance to get excited about. With the landing completed, the mission's scientists and engineers will now turn their focus to checking the status of the rover-which so far seems to be completely healthy-and beginning to turn on its myriad science instruments. The six-wheeled geologist spotted the twister as part of an atmospheric exploration of Jezero Crater.