Perseverance began its "edge movement" on Mars and will explore the origin and significance of carbonates on the edge of Jezero Crater in the coming days.This week on Mars, Perseverance arrived at the Mandu Wall and carried out the first abrasion of the rocks in the edge carbonate unit, officially kicking off the edge movement! Reaching this destination is not easy - "Perseverance" used a combination of autonomous driving and directional driving on rugged terrain to avoid danger. After several attempts, it successfully carved a path about 350 meters long among the boulders.
The lithological boundary of Mandu Wall is an important waypoint on the climb toward the rim of Jezero Crater because it contains large amounts of carbonate-containing rocks that are hypothesized to have formed through precipitation as a result of water activity on the once-watery Martian surface billions of years ago. Water-driven alteration of igneous minerals is another possible mechanism that could explain the origin of carbonates.
The Rim Movement is dedicated to exploring the origin, alteration, and astrobiological relevance of the rim carbonates surrounding the upper rim of Jezero Crater. How were these rocks formed? How have they changed since their formation? Can their changes tell us about the evolution of the Martian environment? What is the relationship between marginal carbonates and the rocks around them? Do these carbonates contain potential biosignatures or information about habitability? These are just a few of the scientific questions driving the "fringe movement."
The fourth part of the Mars 2020 mission is expected to take about 230 solstices (the number of days on Mars, approximately equal to 8 months on Earth). Perseverance will travel through the edge carbonate rocks to the edge of Jezero Crater, stopping along the way for remote and close-range scientific observations and drilling up to 4 cores. After reaching the edge, "Perseverance" will switch to "Operation Inner Rim", focusing on exploring the upper boundary of Jezero Rim, and finally leave the crater and continue "Operation Beyond Jezero".
In the near future, as the "edge movement" proceeds, close scientific observations of the new "Amherst Point" abrasion patch on the Mandu Wall are planned to be carried out in the next few solar days. Once this data collected by SHERLOC, PIXL and SuperCam is transmitted down to Earth, it will help the science team decide whether to drill here - or to look elsewhere and select different marginal carbonate targets to sample the first core of this exploration program.