Perseverance rover arrives at “Three Forks” River Delta - The Hunt Begins

The long 3 mile record breaking drive is over but no rest for Percy , after a few weeks on the road Percy has reached the Three Forks River Delta which will be its operational base for the foreseeable future , the river delta offers the best chance for us to answer the question "was there life on Mars" by giving us clear proof of ancient biology , then we can turn our attention to "is there life on Mars".

As I can't seem to upload images ATM here's a video of the rather spectacular view.

“The delta at Jezero Crater promises to be a veritable geologic feast and one of the best locations on Mars to look for signs of past microscopic life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The answers are out there – and Team Perseverance is ready to find them.”

The Delta Front Campaign kicked off Monday, April 18, with about a week’s worth of driving to the southwest and then west. One goal of this excursion is to scope out the best route to ascend the delta, which rises about 130 feet (40 meters) above the crater floor. Two options, called “Cape Nukshak” and “Hawksbill Gap,” look traversable. The science team is leaning toward Hawksbill Gap because of the shorter drive time needed to reach the top of the delta, but that may change as the rover acquires additional information on the two options.

Whichever route Perseverance takes to the plateau atop the delta, the team will perform detailed science investigations, including taking rock core samples, on the way up, then turn around and do the same thing on the way back down. The rover is expected to collect around eight samples over about half an Earth year during the Delta Front Campaign.

After completing the descent, Perseverance will, according to current plans, again ascend the delta (perhaps via the other, untraveled route) to begin the “Delta Top Campaign,” which will last about half an Earth year as well.

There's a pretty stunning Hi Rez zoomable image at the link too.

The expanse of Jezero Crater’s river delta is shown in this panorama of 64 stitched-together images taken by the Mastcam-Z system on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on April 11, 2022, the 406th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
mars.nasa.gov...

Mars is so cool because only our robots are there.

Thanks for the update.
If you zoom in on the panorama there are some interesting blue rocks. Well worth checking out.

Can't upload pics as the. The upload seems to be broken.

a reply to: gortex

Another great post.

Mars is so cool because only our robots are there

Mars is cool.....but are you sure about the rest?😉

Yes, Mars and Percy are both cool because Percy can do compositional analysis of collected organic and non-organic samples, so wouldn't it and the scientists have analyzed the building blocks of life by now?

a reply to: gortex

I don't know how much traction this thread will get due to all of the attention the thread about penis size posted just before this one is getting. But maybe, if Rover keeps looking around it may come across the ''online pharmacy from Mars''........

originally posted by: gortex
Mars is so cool because only our robots are there.

Believe China does have a working rover there as well.

So wonder if there's a bit of a space race going on. And if you're NASA how do you play this... imagine there are things they'd prefer to keep quiet, but getting scooped by China after ~50 years of dawdling would be a pretty severe embarrassment.

a reply to: gb540

That's why China having a rover on Mars is a good thing , the indication from Viking 1 when it ran its tests was positive so the thought of the new kid in town scooping the prize from under their noses must be a spur for finding it if it's there.

I used "our" as a collective as we're all as bad as each other.

originally posted by: gortex
I used "our" as a collective as we're all as bad as each other.

Ah, and apologies that I misread. Our as in only rovers from this planet!

Bumping into advanced alien rovers that want us off their lawn probably wouldn't be so good.

I hope they really do find something this year. We need some good news here on Earth. When i was looking online earlier I found this mission that Japan is launching. Cant believe I didnt see it earlier:

scitechdaily.com...#:~:text=The%20objectives%20of%20the%20MMX,Mars%20an d%20the%20terrestrial%20planets.

Japan’s Mission to Mars’ Moon Phobos Will Bring a Sample Home by 2029

Japan’s space agency (JAXA) is gearing up for its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, with plans to have a sample from Mars’ moon Phobos return to Earth by 2029. Mission scientists say they hope to find clues to the origins of Mars two moons, as well as Mars itself, and possibly even traces of past life.

“We think that the Martian moon, Phobos, is loaded with material lifted from Mars during meteorite impacts,” the MMX team said on Twitter. “By collecting this Phobos sample, MMX will help investigate traces of Martian life and the new era of Martian habitability exploration in the 2020s will begin.”

MMX currently has a planned launch in 2024, with the spacecraft reaching the Mars system by 2025, approximately one year after leaving Earth. Current plans for the mission include an orbiter, a lander that touches down on Phobos with sample collection and return capability, and perhaps even a rover.

Would be interesting if they found something on Phobos!

a reply to: gortex


Awesome video.

It looks a lot like the 'hantamberge, karoo, South Africa where I believe the water level used to rise to the top part of the flat part at the highest point but I suspect there are better examples out there.


linky no photo

Mars is Antarctica just in case no one figured it out yet.......

originally posted by: BerkshireEntity
Mars is Antarctica just in case no one figured it out yet.......

Mars is dead, no other thought - now or before time - just dead...no chance. It's the reality of the universe or what have you.