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

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

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)
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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 finegrained 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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4856
JournalScience Advances
Volume8
Issue number47
Number of pages18
ISSN2375-2548
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Nov 2022

Keywords

  • MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE
  • OPTICAL DEPTH
  • DUST AEROSOL
  • IMAGER
  • VENTIFACTS
  • CLOUDS
  • SYSTEM
  • VIKING
  • WIND
  • SAND

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