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Perseverance Rover Witnesses One Martian Dust Devil Eating Another
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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This mosaic showing the Martian surface outside of Jezero Crater was taken by NASA’s Perseverance on Dec. 25, 2024, at the site where the rover cored a sample dubbed “Silver Mountain” from a rock likely formed during Mars’ earliest geologic period.NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS The diversity of rock types along the rim of Jezero Crater offers a wide glimpse of Martian history.
Scientists with NASA’s Perseverance rover are exploring what they consider a veritable Martian cornucopia full of intriguing rocky outcrops on the rim of Jezero Crater. Studying rocks, boulders, and outcrops helps scientists understand the planet’s history, evolution, and potential for past or present habitability. Since January, the rover has cored five rocks on the rim, sealing samples from three of them in sample tubes. It’s also performed up-close analysis of seven rocks and analyzed another 83 from afar by zapping them with a laser. This is the mission’s fastest science-collection tempo since the rover landed on the Red Planet more than four years ago.
Perseverance climbed the western wall of Jezero Crater for 3½ months, reaching the rim on Dec. 12, 2024, and is currently exploring a roughly 445-foot-tall (135-meter-tall) slope the science team calls “Witch Hazel Hill.” The diversity of rocks they have found there has gone beyond their expectations.
“During previous science campaigns in Jezero, it could take several months to find a rock that was significantly different from the last rock we sampled and scientifically unique enough for sampling,” said Perseverance’s project scientist, Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “But up here on the crater rim, there are new and intriguing rocks everywhere the rover turns. It has been all we had hoped for and more.”
One of Perseverance’s hazard cameras captured the rover’s coring drill collecting the “Main River” rock sample on “Witch Hazel Hill” on March 10, 2025, the 1,441st Martian day, or sol, of the mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech That’s because Jezero Crater’s western rim contains tons of fragmented once-molten rocks that were knocked out of their subterranean home billions of years ago by one or more meteor impacts, including possibly the one that produced Jezero Crater. Perseverance is finding these formerly underground boulders juxtaposed with well-preserved layered rocks that were “born” billions of years ago on what would become the crater’s rim. And just a short drive away is a boulder showing signs that it was modified by water nestled beside one that saw little water in its past.
Oldest Sample Yet?
Perseverance collected its first crater-rim rock sample, named “Silver Mountain,” on Jan. 28. (NASA scientists informally nickname Martian features, including rocks and, separately, rock samples, to help keep track of them.) The rock it came from, called “Shallow Bay,” most likely formed at least 3.9 billion years ago during Mars’ earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and it may have been broken up and recrystallized during an ancient meteor impact.
About 360 feet (110 meters) away from that sampling site is an outcrop that caught the science team’s eye because it contains igneous minerals crystallized from magma deep in the Martian crust. (Igneous rocks can form deep underground from magma or from volcanic activity at the surface, and they are excellent record-keepers — particularly because mineral crystals within them preserve details about the precise moment they formed.) But after two coring attempts (on Feb. 4 and Feb. 8) fizzled due to the rock being so crumbly, the rover drove about 520 feet (160 meters) northwest to another scientifically intriguing rock, dubbed “Tablelands.”
Data from the rover’s instruments indicates that Tablelands is made almost entirely of serpentine minerals, which form when large amounts of water react with iron- and magnesium-bearing minerals in igneous rock. During this process, called serpentinization, the rock’s original structure and mineralogy change, often causing it to expand and fracture. Byproducts of the process sometimes include hydrogen gas, which can lead to the generation of methane in the presence of carbon dioxide. On Earth, such rocks can support microbial communities.
Coring Tablelands went smoothly. But sealing it became an engineering challenge.
Sealing the “Green Gardens” sample — collected by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover from a rock dubbed “Tablelands” along the rim of Jezero Crater on Feb. 16, 2025 — pre-sented an engineering challenge. The sample was finally sealed on March 2.NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS Flick Maneuver
“This happened once before, when there was enough powdered rock at the top of the tube that it interfered with getting a perfect seal,” said Kyle Kaplan, a robotics engineer at JPL. “For Tablelands, we pulled out all the stops. Over 13 sols,” or Martian days, “we used a tool to brush out the top of the tube 33 times and made eight sealing attempts. We even flicked it a second time.”
During a flick maneuver, the sample handling arm — a little robotic arm in the rover’s belly — presses the tube against a wall inside the rover, then pulls the tube away, causing it to vibrate. On March 2, the combination of flicks and brushings cleaned the tube’s top opening enough for Perseverance to seal and store the serpentine-laden rock sample.
Eight days later, the rover had no issues sealing its third rim sample, from a rock called “Main River.” The alternating bright and dark bands on the rock were like nothing the science team had seen before.
Up Next
Following the collection of the Main River sample, the rover has continued exploring Witch Hazel Hill, analyzing three more rocky outcrops (“Sally’s Cove,” “Dennis Pond,” and “Mount Pearl”). And the team isn’t done yet.
“The last four months have been a whirlwind for the science team, and we still feel that Witch Hazel Hill has more to tell us,” said Stack. “We’ll use all the rover data gathered recently to decide if and where to collect the next sample from the crater rim. Crater rims — you gotta love ’em.”
More About Perseverance
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover is characterizing the planet’s geology and past climate, to help pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and is the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
NASA’s Mars Sample Return Program, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), is designed to send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio and the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance
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DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
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Last Updated Apr 10, 2025 Related Terms
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Sols 4505-4506: Up, up and onto the Devil’s Gate
This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4503 (2025-04-07 00:33:50 UTC). NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick
Earth planning date: Monday, April 7, 2025
Over the weekend, we completed our drive up the steep side of a canyon, up onto “Devil’s Gate,” a small butte which forms part of the ridge along the top of the canyon and now we can see down into the next canyon. It is always true that we are going somewhere no one has been before – that’s the idea of an exploratory mission after all, and everyone kind of gets used to it, we don’t stop to think about it. But today, coming over the top of a hill like this and fully looking for the first time into an area that we have only had glimpses of before, it really brings it home that the mission is doing something extraordinary, something out of this world …. and brings that feeling of awe back into focus.
We did not pass SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) a couple of times as we climbed up the side of this canyon, meaning that the contact science instruments (APXS and MAHLI) had to stand down for that day’s planning. However, this morning, in addition to a brand new vista, we saw that all six wheels are firmly on the ground and we passed SRAP quickly this morning, which must have been a relief to the rover planner in charge of assessing it today! (no one wants to be the bearer of bad news, day after day!)
Bedrock here has both flat bedrock and amazing large nodular features, which appear to have “wind tails” caused by winds consistently blowing in the same direction. This is a Touch and Go plan, so APXS and MAHLI are focusing on a single target, the brushed “Coronado” target on the flat bedrock in front of us. ChemCam will use LIBS to investigate the nodular features at “La Cumbre Peak.”
Near the rover, Mastcam will image some small diagenetic features at “Boulder Oaks” and the LIBS target. The 3×2 (2 rows of 3 images) “La Jolla Valley” mosaic focuses on a very nodular patch, just outside of the workspace reachable by the arm. Further from the rover, the 6×2 mosaic (2 rows of 6 images) “Los Penasquitos” looks at an amazing almost vertical vein. This discontinuous vein stretches for about 6 meters (about 18 feet), with vein fins sticking above the surface at various points, like a series of shark fins breaking the bedrock surface. Much further afield, ChemCam will acquire a long distance image on “Condor Peak,” which appears to have large scale vein networks, known as “boxwork structures” and may be an early example of the boxworks we are hoping to reach in Fall 2025.
The ENV (Environmental and Atmospheric group) planned a Mastcam “tau” measurement, to look at dust in the atmosphere. There is a paired Navcam activity, looking at dust devils towards the north of the crater on the first sol and towards the south on the second sol. A suprahorizon movie and our usual DAN and REMS measurements round out this plan.
Let’s see what the next drive will reveal to us!
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By NASA
3 min read
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Students from Universidad Católica Boliviana “San Pablo” compete during NASA’s 2024 Human Exploration Rover Challenge. The 2025 competition takes place Friday and Saturday, April 11-12, 2025, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Aviation Challenge course in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA NASA’s annual Human Exploration Rover Challenge returns Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, with student teams competing at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Aviation Challenge course near the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Media are invited to watch as hundreds of students from around the world attempt to navigate a complex obstacle course by piloting a vehicle of their own design and production. Media interested in attending or setting up interviews should contact Taylor Goodwin in the Marshall Office of Communications at 938-210-2891 no later than 2 p.m. Thursday, April 10.
In addition to the traditional human-powered rover division, this year’s competition expands the challenge to include a remote-control division. The 2025 HERC Handbook includes guidelines for the new remote-control division and updates for the human-powered division.
Participating teams represent 35 colleges and universities, 38 high schools, and two middle schools from 20 states, Puerto Rico, and 16 other nations.
The event is free and open to the public, with rover excursions from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. CDT each day, or until the last rover completes the obstacle course.
Following the competition, NASA will host an in-person awards ceremony Saturday, April 12, at 5:30 p.m. inside the Space Camp Operations Center at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. NASA and industry sponsors will present multiple awards highlighting team successes throughout the past eight-months-long engineering design project, including awards for best rover design, best pit crew, best social media presence, and many other accomplishments.
About the Challenge
Recognized as NASA’s leading international student challenge, the Human Exploration Rover Challenge aims to put competitors in the mindset of NASA’s Artemis campaign. Teams pitch an engineering design for a lunar rover which simulates astronauts exploring the lunar surface while overcoming various obstacles. Eligible teams compete to be among the top three finishers in their divisions, and to win multiple awards, including best vehicle design, best rookie team, and more.
The annual challenge draws hundreds of students from around the world and reflects the goals of NASA’s Artemis campaign, which will establish the first long-term presence on the Moon and pave the way for eventual missions to Mars.
The event was launched in 1994 as the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race – a collegiate competition to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. It expanded in 1996 to include high school teams, evolving again in 2014 into the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge. Since its inception, more than 15,000 students have participated – with many former students now working in the aerospace industry, including with NASA.
The Human Exploration Rover Challenge is managed by NASA Marshall’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement and is one of eight Artemis Student Challenges. NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement uses challenges and competitions to further the agency’s goal of encouraging students to pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
To learn more about the challenge, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/roverchallenge/
Taylor Goodwin
256-544-0034
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Apr 04, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Sols 4502-4504: Sneaking Past Devil’s Gate
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the terrain around it on April 3, 2025, showing a small ridgeline on the right side, “Devil’s Gate,” and the base of Texoli butte, visible on the left side of the image. Curiosity acquired the image using its Left Navigation Camera on Sol 4500, or Martian day 4,500 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, at 23:08:35 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework
Earth planning date: Friday, April 4, 2025
We continue to make progress driving up Mount Sharp, each day gaining new perspectives on the spectacular, towering buttes surrounding our path. To get to the next canyon we can ascend, we have to swing around the north end of a small ridgeline, “Devil’s Gate,” which is on the right side of the image above.
The blocks scattered around the base of Devil’s Gate are ripe with interesting structures, which motivated the acquisition of an RMI mosaic across the ridge. Those blocks are also inconvenient for driving and parking the rover with all six wheels firmly on the ground, the latter of which is needed to be able to unstow the arm for APXS and MAHLI observations. Our last drive ended with our front wheels not quite on solid ground, so we had to forego arm work this weekend. But as you can imagine with the view around us, Devil’s Gate was not the only feature that the team was excited to image. ChemCam added a second RMI mosaic along the base of “Texoli” butte, which you can see the flank of on the left side of the image above. Mastcam planned a mosaic across an expanse of bedrock that looks like rolling waves frozen in place at “Maidenhair Falls.”
The rocks right in front of the rover were also wonderfully complex in their textures and structures. ChemCam targeted two different textures expressed in the workspace — one across fine layers at “Arroyo Burro” and one across rough, platy, and gray material at “Arroyo Conejo.” Mastcam documented the block containing both these targets with a stereo mosaic that will give us a three-dimensional view of its structures.
We planned a drive to get us further around the base of Devil’s Gate, after which we will acquire an autonomously-targeted ChemCam LIBS raster and early morning Navcam and Mastcam mosaics looking back on the path we have recently traveled. DAN is scheduled for about seven hours of data collecting across the plan, both during science blocks and our drive. The sky gets a lot of attention in this plan with suites of observations taken at two different times — near midday and early morning — to assess variability across the day. Each window of time had Navcam dust-devil and cloud movies, and measurements of the amount of dust in the atmosphere. The early morning block of observations also had multiple cloud movies cover the full sky. REMS and RAD have regular measurements across the sols.
See you Monday, when we are a bit farther past Devil’s Gate!
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