• less than 100m to go before “land fall” on Solander Point
• the next drive will put Opportunity at the “shore”
• a “new world” is about to be explored; what strange rocks and structures will we encounter?
L.S. Crumpler, NMMNHS & Perseverance Science Team
As of sol 575 Perseverance has travled over 12 km and Ingenuity has made 33 flights. Currently Persverance is collecting samples at the base of the Jezero Crater delta. I have been field geologic mapping the traverse out to 30 m from the rover during the entire delta campaign and some of the maps are shown in the following. The delta is a classic Earth-style "Gilbert delta" and the layers of sediment arre being examined carfefully for potential biogenic materials, cored, and stired on the rover for delivery to a caching site. Shortly we will collect a couple of more samples and then drive to the sample caching site where the Mars Sample Return lander will land some time after 2030, collect the samples from the cache, and return them to Earth.