Jezero Delta Campaign, Sols 414-1000, 21 Apr 2022- 23 Dec 2023 Options

[Julius]

Think we can kick off the new phase of exploration at Jezero.

[tau]

Sol 590 Mastcam-Z
1. and 3. Left eye filter 0 raw images (black frame omitted)
2. and 4. Left eye multispectral filters 1 to 6 (visible to near infrared light) principal components

[tau]

The two multispectral images of the previous post in a sol 586 Navcam right eye mosaic context

[PaulH51]

After ~4 weeks at Amalik the rover has driven away during Sol 592, the map has not been updated yet, but it looks close to 40 meters north.
Here is one of the post-drive tiled NavCams that features a TAR where the rover may take a regolith sample.
The mosaic was downlinked as a 4x4 tiled set, but I have reduced its size to match the 2x2 sets.
The rover may need a bump to reach the TAR (if they choose to sample here)

[Phil Stooke]

Paul's images give me this circular view:





Phil

[PaulH51]

A short drive up to a transverse aeolian ridge (TAR) on Sol 593. Once there the wheel tracks indicate that they swept the front right-side wheel onto and off the TAR. I'm assuming they did this to expose some fresh regolith for investigation with the rover's instruments. Looks like a possible site to use the regolith sample bit for the first time. I've attached three end-of drive NavCam's and one Front HazCam roughly assembled in MS-ICE and processed to highlight the terrain. The other 2x2 sets had some data drop out on a number of tiles.

[tau]

Sol 593 Supercam Remote Micro-Imager mosaic with 10 laser holes,
Mastcam-Z left eye filter 0 context image and
Mastcam-Z left eye multispectral principal components

[Bill Harris]

PaulH51
Regolith sample bit? Shelby tube? Split spoon? Osterberg?
I'll need to read up on that.

[PaulH51]

PaulH51
Regolith sample bit? Shelby tube? Split spoon? Osterberg?
I'll need to read up on that.

Here's an extract from "The Sampling and Caching Subsystem (SCS) for the Scientific Exploration of Jezero Crater by the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover" link (Paywalled)

The sample acquisition process for regolith collection is different from coring. During regolith sample collection, the RA positions the Turret and Corer so that the Regolith Bit is facing downward near the sampling target. The Corer Feed mechanism moves the Regolith Bit downward into the regolith while combining Spindle rotation and Percussion operation, but there may also be small Turret sweeping motions of up to a few degrees during acquisition to aid in regolith collection. After retraction of the Regolith Bit, a short Percussion operation levels the sample, and the RA moves the Turret through some prescribed motions (to “flip” the regolith from the head into the Sample Tube) and Percussion operation to ensure that the regolith sample is moved adequately into the Sample Tube. Nominal samples of 8 cc at acquisition are controlled by the Regolith Bit tip geometry (although some compaction or loss can occur during Percussion operation and transfer to the Sample Tube).

[Phil Stooke]

Paul kindly made the images for this Navcam circular view of the sol 593 location.

Phil

[tau]

Sol 594 Supercam Remote Micro-Imager mosaic with laser holes,
Mastcam-Z left eye filter 0 context image,
and Mastcam-Z left eye multispectral principal components

[tau]

1. Sol 594 image of the sand dune by the SHERLOC WATSON camera
2. Mastcam-Z context
3. High-resolution details from the SHERLOC WATSON image, low-resolution colors from the Mastcam-Z multispectral principal components image in the previous post.
Strong parallax between Mastcam-Z and SHERLOC WATSON camera prevents a better alignment of details and colors.

[Bill Harris]

Re: PaulH51 Post 443:

Yes, that is elegant and will get us an undisturbed sample from that spot. It will give us short history of aeolian processes at that spot.

--Bill

[Phil Stooke]

Old-timers will remember the Rover Field Reports from Mars written (and illustrated) by Larry Crumpler. I have just discovered that Larry has been putting together sporadic reports for Perseverance:

https://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/space-scie...rts-mars?page=1

(Sporadic means only 2 since landing but the second is recent). Also you can look through lots of old ones for Opportunity (maybe Spirit but I didn't look back far enough).

Phil

[Bill Harris]

I'd forgotten about Larry Crumpler and his wonderful Rover Reports. Even the couple of reports presented were great.
I wonder what happened to them? Larry is apparently still on the JPL Rover Team.

--Bill

[PaulH51]

Making tracks on Sol 606, image acquired after a drive due Northwest of ~208.5 meters and a climb of 7.74 meters.
Roughly assembled (MS-ICE) 2x2 tiled NavCam, and a table using selected data/stats from JPLs JSON URLs