NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

The abrasion bit and the target boulder/large cobble clearly slipped during the operation, and we only have 13 minutes worth of frames for this animation, so I'm sure the abrasion ended prematurely. Later frames, however, show that some powder/tailings were generated during the operation, so it should be interesting to see what the partial abrasion patch looks like.

NASA/JPL-Caltech assembled from 16 tiles

Screen capture with annotations of JPL's official map

Data from JPL

This is a post-drive image was assembled / processed from 12 HazCam tiles.

Perseverance rover acquired this image using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

View the online map here: https://mars.nasa.gov/maps/location/?mission=M20

Data taken from the M2020 waypoint and traverse json URL's updated by JPL after each drive.

This navigation camera image was assembled from 16 image tiles. It shows the rover at site 77.1128 looking Southwest. Image size is 5101x3821px. Image credits NASA/JPL-Caltech

As work spaces g,o this one does not look very interesting, as there is no exposed bedrock.

Screen shot from the mission map

See the rover's wheel tracks disappearing off to the East

This close-up view of a plate on NASA's Perseverance rover commemorating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and paying tribute to the perseverance of health care workers around the world was acquired on June 28, 2025 (the 1,548th day, or sol, of its mission to Mars).

The drilling process was seemingly not the smoothest:

Hopefully this data is presented in a form that folk can understand. However, if it does not make sense please let me know, and I'll answer any questions.

Cropped 6-tile NavCam, shows the rover's new workspace while looking South-southeast after a very short move. The team advanced the RMC site number which sometimes points to a potential sample site. Recent attempts to abrade this type of rock have not been fully successful as the surface of the rock has fractured badly. The observant will notice that the surface of this rock was fractured at some point, maybe it's better cemented compared with those earlier attempts. Watch this space and see what happens next.

The drive path is highlighted yellow

The details are extracted from JPL's public JSON URLs that provide waypoint and traverse data, these are updated shortly after each drive. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Composite image using 6 overlapping processed NavCam tiles acquired after the drive to site 76.594. Roughly assembled in MS-ICE. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Three sols after the first (messy, unsuccessful) attempt to abrade another rock in this clay-bearing region of the crater rim, Percy has made a second attempt, less than a metre away.

In addition to drilling rock core samples, the science team has been grinding its way into rocks to make sense of the scientific evidence hiding just below the surface.

No image of a freshly abraded rock has been uploaded to the JPL server as yet, and we've only received 10 frames of the abrasion operation so far (spanning about 10 minutes of work), so I'm not sure what to think. Did the rover sense a problem and end the abrasion early? As the animation shows, the arm and the abrasion bit actually shifted a bit during the operation, which is not unprecedented, but it may be that Percy stopped as a precaution.

4-tile post-drive NavCam - Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Annotated screen capture of the official map - Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/UofA

The raw data is provided by NASA/JPL after each drive

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/UofA

The drive distance may be amended later as there are 2 official data sources, and the one I don't usually use indicates the distance was a little longer at 405.49 m. I've decided to report on the shorter one for the time being

end-of-drive upper tier NavCam looking south after the second longest daily drive since landing. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Two images of the Nili Plateau landscape to the west of the rover: one taken at about 1:30 PM local time, the other at about 7 PM, in early summer.

Perseverance rover acquired this image of the coring bit located in the Carousel using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The image has been rotated to correct the orientation of the carousel.

Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Sample Caching System Camera (CacheCam), located inside the rover underbelly. It looks down into the top of a sample tube to take close-up pictures of the sampled material and the tube as it's prepared for sealing and storage.

Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Left Mastcam-Z camera at full zoom. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast. No obvious damage is seen and they managed to remove the coring bit that was being used when the coring operation shattered the bedrock.

MastCam-Z at full zoom checks out the fractured bedrock where the rover tried to core a few days ago. I've processed the image to pull out the details as the raw image was a little over exposed. Hope that they acquire some SuperCam close-ups :) Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

No sign of a rock core in the drill be. I'm assuming the coring process was halted when the rock broke up

Not sure if this was successful, seeing a little sideways slip in the drill and possible break up of the upper layers of the rock. Need more of these raw HazCam tiles to get a better idea of what's going on during the entire coring process, but this is all we have so far....

We'll know for sure when more images come down, but I'd wager this is the start of the drilling process. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Taken approximately 45 min after sunset on Sol 1528 (original NavCam frames here and here).

Mission update - Published June 6, 2025

Here's a MastCam-Z image, checking out the condition of its rotary percussive drill and the abrasion bit used to create the patch. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Meanwhile on Mars!

HazCam GIF using a few raw tiles shows the abrasion tool in action during sol 1525 (June 4, 2025) - NASA/JPL-Caltech

12 tile post-drive HazCam . Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/U of A

I've corrected the number of drives in this version. I was unknowingly counting non-drives (e.g a site number change without moving) . I've now added the Traverse JSON as an additional data source. This provides some additional data, such as drive times and the Traverse JSON data also makes it simpler to count the actual numbers of drives.

Looking back after the drive 80 minute drive 2-tile pot-drive L-NavCam Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Perseverance rover acquired this image using its SHERLOC Autofocus and Context Imager (ACI), located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

Post-drive - 4-tile L-NavCam - NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA/JPL-Caltech UofA

Original NavCam image from Sol 1519, taken just a few hours ago

Perseverance rover acquired this image using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

R-MastCam-Z at full zoom (110mm).

L-NavCam tile - NASA/JPL-Caltech

4-tile - post-drive NavCam - NASA/JPL-Caltech

4-tile post drive NavCam. We can see the tracks heading off to the East NASA/JPL-Caltech

6 post-drive NavCam tiles assembled in MS-ICE NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Assembled / cropped in MS-ICE - NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mission update dated May 19, 2025.

End-of-Drive 4-tile L-NavCam NASA/JPL-Caltech

Processed MastCam-Z image (full zoom) of a small Ventifact.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover made history by detecting them for the first time from the surface of another planet, and MAVEN confirmed the detection.

Some quick analysis:

6 tiles L-NavCam NASA/JPL-Caltech

Closing in on the Transverse Aeolian Ridges (TARs)

Map

sol 1500 Selfie assembled from 6 overlapping Watson images

Hard to tell if this is the same core imaged a few sols ago. Watch this space for updates. But this one looks ready to cap / seal

For those unaware, Perseverance and Curiosity are both armed, like the good patriotic American rovers they are - equipped with lasers which have a definite scientific function, but which also (let's be honest) serve to dissuade any Martian critters they come across from getting too close...

Perseverance rover imaged one of its drill bits on Sol 1494 with a MastCam-Z camera. We can see a rock core inside its sample tube. I'm assuming this is the same core (#29) that was imaged inside the rover with its CacheCam a couple of days ago. I'm not sure why it's been brought outside again. But one possible answer is that the core is stuck in its tube and preventing it being pushed down into the sample tube far enough, to permit capping / sealing the tube.

Imaged by the CacheCam on sol 1490 (April 29, 2025)

A crop from a 9-tile NavCam image shows the latest sample hole drilled in the surface of Mars. The drilled hole has an approximate diameter of 1 inch (2.5 cm). A rock core appears in several Bayer encoded raw images from the MastCam-Z camera. I'll post the color processed versions when they become available. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech