Eclipse observed on Mars.

NASA's Perseverance Rover has observed an eclipse from the surface of Mars, caused by the moon Phobos passing in front of the Sun. Phobos is significantly smaller than our Moon, only 17 km in diameter compared to 3475 km, but orbits much closer to Mars than the Moon does to Earth, an average of 9376 km compared to 384 400 km, which combined with the smaller apparent size of the Sun seen from Mars, which is roughly 1½ times as far from the Sun as the Earth is, means that eclipses are still an observable phenomenon. 

Solar eclipse on Mars, caused by the moon Phobos passing in front of the Sun, recorded by the Perseverance Rover. Images are at 10 second intervals, with the whole event lasting much less time than an eclipse on Earth, due to the closer orbit of Phobos, and the correspondingly higher speed of the Martian moon, which takes only 7.6 hours to orbit the planet. NASA.

The eclipse, which occurred on 30 September 2024, was the second such eclipse observed by Perseverance this year, with the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers also having Martian eclipses. These eclipses are common because, unlike that of our Moon, the orbit of Phobos has very little tilt, effectively remaining above the planet's equator at all times.

An eclipse caused by the passage of Phobos in front of the Sun recorded by the Perseverance Rover on 8 February 2024. NASA.

Mars's second moon, Deimos, does not cause such obvious eclipses, as it is only 6.2 km in diameter, and orbits at an altitude of 23 460 km, making it almost invisible from the planet's surface.

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Images from Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe has sent back it's first images, following a not-quite-to-plan landing on 19 January 2024. These images show an area of lunar landscape, and are built up by the synthesis of 257 individual low-resolution images from the probe's Multi-Band Camera (MBC). A number of potentially interesting rocks have been identified for future investigations.

A lunar surface scan mosaic image captured by the SLIM-mounted MBC (left) and its enlarged view (right). The grey area on the right of the mosaic lacks data due to the discontinuation of scanning operation. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The SLIM probe landed on the edge of Shioli Crater, a small lunar impact crater that is located within the much larger Cyrillus Crater in the Moon's Southern Hemisphere, on 19 January 2024. However, due to a problem with its engines it landed nose-down, then toppled so that its solar panels face to the west, a sub-optimal position which leave it receiving more sunlight than would be ideal. It was able to deploy one of the two small landers it carried, the Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV-1), which carried out a series of operations, including becoming the smallest ever independent probe to communicate directly with the Earth from the Moon (LEV-1 weighs only 2.1 kg, of which 90 g is its communication system), before powering down.

The SLIM landing site is now entering the lunar night, which will last for 14 days, and the probe which, which is reliant on solar power, will power down for this period. However, due to the unplanned nature of its landing orientation, it is not completely clear if it will be able to re-awaken at the end of this period.

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Dust devil observed from the surface of Mars.

NASA's  Perseverance Rover has observed and recorded an dust devil from the surface of Mars. These storms are well recorded from space-based observations made by satellites orbiting Mars, but ground-based observations are much rarer, in part because rovers on Mars are usually closed down when dust storms approach them, to prevent them from being damaged.

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this Martian dust devil moving east to west at a speed of about 19 kmph along Thorofare Ridge on  30 August 2023. The video has been sped up 20 times, is composed of 21 frames taken four seconds apart, and has been digitally enhanced in order to show maximal detail. NASA/JPL/Caltech.

Dust devils are a phenomenom known on Earth as well as Mars, although the lower gravity and thinner atmosphere of Mars means that the Martian devils tend to be both taller and slower moving than their Earthly equivalents. This storm was about 4 km away from the rover when it was observed, and was moving along a portion of the western rim of Jezero Crater known as Thorofare Ridge at a speed of about 19 kmph. The storm of the dust devil is not visible, but based upon its shadow, it is estimated to have been about 2 km high, with the basal portion being about 60 m wide.

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Evidence of recent liquid water at low latitudes on Mars.

The surface of Mars today is a hyperarid desert, yet in many places has features apparently formed by liquid water. It is now generally accepted that liquid water was present on early Mars, when the planet had a very different atmosphere. However, that early atmosphere has subsequently disappeared, and it is now assumed that the atmospheric pressure on Mars is now to low for liquid water to form.

This being the case, it came as a great surprise to scientists when, in March 2009, droplets of liquid were observed on one of the robotic arms of NASA's Phoenix Rover. Studies of the data recovered by Phoenix eventually concluded that the conditions for hypersaline water could exist on Mars at high latitudes during the summer, when the temperature rose above the melting point of such solutions (which is significantly lower than 0°C), resulting in a freeze-thaw cycle that might help to explain some of the features seen in these regions. 

However, the wider presence of apparent water features, such as slope lineae and gullies, is harder to explain. This had led scientists do develop alternative explanations, under which such features could have developed under dry conditions, since it is difficult to understand how sufficient liquid water could be present on the surface of Mars to explain features such as slope flows hundreds of metres in length. This disparity between a theoretical presence of small amounts of water on Mars, and a necessity to invoke dry formation of features we would typically associate with the presence of large amounts of water on Earth, makes it necessary to study smaller (less than one metre) features on Mars's surface in order to understand the planet's hydrological conditions properly. This is particularly true of features at lower (i.e non-polar) latitudes, where milder conditions make a freeze-thaw cycle unlikely, and there is a higher potential for the presence of some form of microbial life.

The China National Space Administration's Zhurong Rover landed on the southern Utopia Planitia on 15 May 2021, and spent nine months exploring the Late Hesperian northern lowlands, including studying the microstructure and chemical composition of the dune features observed there.

In a paper published in the journal Science Advances on 28 April 2023, Xiaoguang Qin of the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment at the Institute of Geology andGeophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xin Ren of the Key Laboratory of Lunarand Deep Space Exploration at the Chinese National Astronomical Observatories, Xu Wang, also of the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jianjun Liu, also of the Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration at the Chinese National Astronomical Observatories, Haibin Wu, again of the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and of the  College of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Chinese Academy of Science, Yong Sun of the Institute of AtmosphericPhysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhaopeng Chen, again of the Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration at the Chinese National Astronomical Observatories, Shihao Zhang, also of the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yizhong Zhang, Wangli Chen, Bin Liu, Dawei Liu, and Lin Guo, again of the Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration at the Chinese National Astronomical Observatories, Kangkang Li, again of the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangzhao Zeng, Hai Huang, Qing Zhang, Songzheng Yu, and Chunlai Li, again of the Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration at the Chinese National Astronomical Observatories, and Zhengtang Guo, once again of the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,  present the results of a study of the surficial microstructure, morphology, and chemical compositions of dunes studied by the Zhurong Rover, and the implications of these results for the possibility of liquid water having existed on the surface of Mars at low latitudes in the recent past.

A series of detached barchan (crescent-shaped) dunes with sinuous profiles are present in the Zhurong Rover landing area, each completely detached from its neighbour. The Zhurong Rover encountered four of these as it made a north-to-south transect of the area in the first four months after it landed. 

The rover discovered that the dunes were covered by two very different types of sand, one light and one dark, with the dark sand overlying the lighter dunes, implying a second generation of deposition. The barchan dunes are composed of the lighter sand, and are 15-30 m long and 3-10 m wide. The darker sand matches the surrounding soils, and forms longitudinal dunes and ridges running over the barchans, most commonly at northwest orientated longitudinal dunes crossing the western flank of the barchan. These longitudinal dunes appear more recent, and are likely to have formed under the current modern conditions.

Exploration route of Zhurong Rover and cracks on bright sand dunes. (A) Map of the exploration route of Zhurong from May to September 2021. The HiRIC photo (0.7-m resolution) was taken by the Tianwen-1 orbiter. Dunes 1 to 4, marked by white rectangles, were measured in situ on Sols 45, 64, 92, and 99, respectively. (B) Panorama mosaics acquired by Zhurong Rover's Navigation and Terrain Camera of longitudinal dunes on barchan Dune 2, with white rectangles indicating positions of the cracks. (C) and (D) Cracks developed on the southwestern slope of longitudinal dune on the western wing of Dune 2, with a white arrow pointing to one of the cracks. (E) Panorama mosaics acquired by Navigation and Terrain Camera of barchan Dune 3, with white rectangles indicating positions of the cracks. (F) Cracks on the northern slope of Dune 3. Qin et al. (2023).

Close examination of the surface of these dunes shows more that one form of cementation holding the particles together, with a continuous crust having formed on the light dues and the particles of the darker ridges held together in agglomerated clusters. Examination of the agglomerated particles suggests the presence of hydrated sulphates, hydrated silica (particularly opal), iron oxide minerals, and possibly chlorides. The hydrated sulphates and hydrated silica are most likely to be forming the cements holding these particles together.

Water traces on bright sand dunes. (A) Topographic contour map of the environs where the trace is located. The coordinate system is east-north-up local Cartesian coordinate, and the origin is that of the rover coordinate system. The background digital orthophoto map photo was taken by the Navigation and Terrain Camera. (B) Multispectral Camera bird’s-eye-view photo showing a strip-like trace and a likely water-soaked fragmented soil block. (C) Enlarged photo showing polygonal cracks and bright polygonal ridges. (D) Enlarged photo showing circular region with the strip-like trace as a part. (E) Navigation and Terrain Camera three-dimensional image of an interdune depression between two dark longitudinal dunes. (F) A cross section of the dune along the profile of the white dash line in (E). Qin et al. (2023).

Compositionally, both the light and dark sands have high iron and magnesium contents, although silica remains the most abundant material, comprising between about 52% and about 90% of all samples. Oxides make up about 15% by weight of the light sand and about 10% by weight of the dark sand. The instrumentation used is known to be incapable of detecting volatile elements such as sulphur, chlorine, and phosphorus, as well as hydrogen and hydroxide ions.

Images showing features of agglomerates and crust on the bright sand and dark sand surfaces. (a), (d) Panorama mosaics of Dunes 1 and 3 acquired by the Navigation and Terrain Camera, where white crosses denote the target positions of the laser-induced breakdown spectrometer . (b, c) The Multispectral Camera images (band centered at 699.2 nm, with a Full Width Half Maximum of 14.8 nm) of dark sand and bright sand regions denoted by the white boxes in the photo in (a). (e) The Multispectral Camera image located at the white box in the photo in (d). The upper side of the image is the dark sand region, and the lower side is the bright sand region. For (b), (c), (e), the imaging distance are 2.67m-2.81m, 2.21m-2.28m and 3.15m-3.39m, respectively and the maximum resolutions are 0.42mm, 0.34mm and 0.51mm, respectively. Qin et al. (2023).

The second and third dunes encountered are covered with polygonal cracks, although these are seen only on the underlying bright sand dunes, not the darker sand ridges running across them. The polygons formed by the cracks have an average area of 55.2 cm², and an average side length of 4.8 cm, far smaller than cracks previously observed on Mars by remote sensing. Assuming that the cracks have a depth to width ratio of between 1/3 and 1.4, this would equate to a depth of 1.25-1.7 cm. The majority of the polygons are pentagons, though they range from triangular to heptagonal in shape. The average internal angle of the polygons is 120°, and intersections between cracks are typically Y-shaped.

The MI images of bright sand and dark sand. (a), (d) Panorama mosaics of Dunes 2 and 3 acquired by Navigation and Terrain Camera. (b), (c) The MI images before and after ablation by e laser-induced breakdown spectrometer at the marked target (cross) on the dark sand surface of a longitudinal ridge on the western flank of Dune 2. The image size is 1024 pixel × 1024 pixel. (e), (f) The MI images before and after ablation by e laser-induced breakdown spectrometer at the marked target (cross) on the bright sand surface of Dune 3. The yellow dashed ellipse encircles the e laser-induced breakdown spectrometer crater. (g) The quartzite used in the laboratory experiment. (h) The MI image of the rock surface lasered by the laser-induced breakdown spectrometer. (i) The MI image of onboard Nontronite calibration target after probing with the laser-induced breakdown spectrometer obtained on Sol 58. The red arrow points to the crater created by laser-induced breakdown spectrometer laser ablation. Qin et al. (2023).

A light-toned, strip-like trace, over 40 cm long and about 1.5 cm wide was observed within the interdune depression of the second barchan dune. This ran along the lowest part of the trough depression, and separates light and dark bands of sand, with a dark sand slope to the north and a light sand slope to the south, with abundant polygonal cracks. The shape of this trace appears to be exactly what would be expected by pooled water, should this be able to exist here, and the underlying crust be impermeable to water.

Based upon the superposition of the features, Qin et al. conclude that the light-coloured barchan dunes were formed first, then became encrusted with sulphates, and possibly chlorides, during a more humid climatic phase. 

In order to determine the age of these dunes, Qin et al. looked at the density of craters on the land-surface they form part of (the rate at which asteroids randomly impact Mars is considered to be approximately constant, so that parts of the Martian surface can be dated by the density of impact craters), concluding that this surface was between 400 000 and 1.4 million years old. 

The polygonal cracks which have formed on the surface of some of these cracks are believed to have been caused by a loss of moisture, either through drying or desiccation, with the dark, longitudinal dunes forming after this, and finally the sand in the longitudinal dunes becoming agglutinated into clumps. The cementing of the sands requires a liquid or gas which was able to fill the pore spaces between them, then transform into a solid state. Such substances would include carbon dioxide gas turning into dry ice, liquid water freezing into ice, or various salts and other hydrated chemicals precipitating out of solution as the water in which they were dissolved evaporates. The conditions around the Zhurong landing site make the formation of dry ice and/or water ice highly improbable, and both of these would be detectable by the laser-induced breakdown spectrometer on the Zhurong Lander, which has found no evidence of their presence. However, hydrous sulfates, opaline silica, ferric oxides, and probably chlorides, have bee detected, and this mixture would provide a suitable cement for the sand grains.

The formation of a cement from a mixture of salts and hydrated minerals requires the presence of liquid water. This could have originated from rain, snow, or frost, or have upwelled from a subterranean source, although the evaporation of groundwater drawn upwards by capillary action seems unlikely, as there are cracked evaporation surfaces on the raised dunes, but not the surrounding flatlands, which makes the precipitation of water, either as rain or frost/snow which then thawed before evaporation, the most likely explanation.

The saturated vapor pressure (point at which the atmosphere can hold no more evaporated water, and it begins to precipitate out) is unrelated to the atmospheric pressure, although the temperature must be above 0°C for liquid rain to fall. At 0°C on Mars the saturated vapor pressure would be 611 pascals, while the atmospheric pressure observed on Mars by the Zhurong Lander  is between 786 and 834 pascals, meaning that the atmosphere would need to be about 72% water for rain to fall. Since the modern Martian atmosphere is about 95% carbon dioxide, liquid precipitation on Mars is currently impossible.

Several different landers have now taken atmospheric readings on Mars, giving a range of surface temperatures between -105°C and -5°C, a range of atmospheric pressures between 683 and 849 pascals, and a vapor pressure of 0.27 pascals. Under these conditions, the frost point (point at which the temperature drops so low that water absorbed into the atmosphere precipitates out as frost) would be about -74°C, which means frost would be possible at the Zhurong landing area. More widely, it is assumed that frost and snow are relatively common on Mars.

Mixing water ice, from frost or snow, with salts could potentially lead to its melting point being lowered sufficiently for highly saline liquid water to form. Any subsequent raise in temperature could subsequently lead to water evaporation, with seasonal or even daily cycles of frost formation, melting, and evaporation enabling the formation of cements.

The temperature on Mars is thought to rise rapidly between 5.00 and 6.00 am, local true solar time, providing an interval in which frost can sublimate, and potentially also in which it could melt and then evaporate in a hyper-saline environment. This happens seasonally, with steeper rises and higher temperatures achieved in local summer.

Map showing the number of days (noted on contour lines in terms of sols) during a Martian year and locations where the ground temperature is exceeds 0˚C. Contour intervals are 40 sols. The Zhurong landing site marked with a red star. Qin et al. (2023).

The orbital obliquity of Mars (i.e. the angle at which it is turned to the Sun, which determines the severity of the seasons) is thought to have been equal to or greater than it is now throughout the past 1.4 million years, which would mean that the climate of Mars has been comparable to or more humid than Today throughout this interval. This would imply that the formation of liquid water at low latitudes on Mars has remained at least as possible as it is today over this period.

Such a process of repeatedly forming hypersaline solutions would facilitate the dissolution of silica from sand grains to form opal, as well as attacking other minerals, enabling hydrated sulphates and iron oxides to form.

The polygonal cracks on the surface Mars are also almost certainly the result of either freeze-thaw thermal contraction or desiccation, in response to seasonal or daily changers in temperature, with their general shape suggesting the later is more likely. Meteorite impact effects and carbon dioxide freeze/sublimate cycles have been suggested as an origin for similar cracks elsewhere on Mats, but there are no signs of any meteor impacts large enough to have caused these cracks near the Zhurong landing site, and carbon dioxide is unable to freeze out of the Martian atmosphere this far from the Martian poles.

Qin et al.'s study is the first small-scale study of such cracks at low latitudes on Mars. They believe that these features are almost certainly the result of desiccation, but cannot rule out an alternative hypothesis, in which the cracks are formed by the freezing of hypersaline water, causing cracks to form in the crust under tensile stress. 

All of the features seen in the Zhurong landing area point towards the presence of saline water, providing evidence that liquid water can form at low latitudes on Mars. Qin et al. propose that water accumulated on top of the dunes as frost or snow after the atmospheric temperature dropped below the frost point, then melted due to a combination of rising temperatures and contact with salt within the sands. which would in turn facilitate the formation of hydrated silica (opal) and iron oxides. This water would then evaporate away, at fairly low temperatures due to the low atmospheric pressure on Mars, leaving the salts to precipitate out and form a cement between the sand grains, forming cracks on the dune surface as they dried out. This cycle would likely repeat numerous times.

If this hypothesis is correct, then it suggests that the amount of liquid water available on the surface of Mars in the recent past is considerably higher that previously suspected. It has previously been suggested that transient films of water might have formed on the surface of rocks in the recent past due to acid weathering, and that small amounts of water might have formed duricrusts and rock surface coatings over geological timescales. The situation at the Zhurong landing site appears quite different, with apparently mobile sands unlikely to have become cemented together by any process operating on a geological timescale. Rather this appears to be the result of an evaporative process operating over a relatively short period. less than 1.4 million years ago, and possibly less than 400 000 years ago.

This recent presence of water at 'tropical' latitudes on Mars becomes less unreasonable when it is remembered that Mars is thought to have undergone a significant change in the obliquity of its orbit about 5 million years ago, and only to have reached its current, low-obliquity orbital configuration about 3 million years ago. This may suggest that the thick ice caps present at the current Martian poles are a relatively modern feature, a result of a fairly recent transfer of water from lower latitudes, something which may well have still being occurring 1.4 million years ago. This provides further support for the theory that high-obliquity excursions in the Martian orbit might well have provided enough water for gully formation. Thus the presence of sufficient saline water at low latitudes on Mars for evaporite formation in the recent past is in fact in accord with our current understanding of the planet's recent geological past.

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China successfully lands probe on Mars.

The China National Space Administration has successfully landed a probe on Utopia Planitia, a vast lava plain in Mars' northern hemisphere. The lander comprises the Zhurong Rover, a six wheeled mobile vehicle armed with an array of instruments, plus a supporting platform with a radio transmitter enabling it to communicate with the orbiting Tianwen-1 spacecraft, and thence to Earth. The successful landing makes China only the second nation to have landed a probe on Mars, with the United States having completed several successful landings, but several attempts by the Russian and European space agencies having failed.

 

An artist's impression of the Zhurong Rover surveying the surface of Mars. Aerospace China/China National Space Administration/Wikimedia Commons.

The Tianwen-1 mission was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on 23 July 2020, and entered orbit around Mars on 24 February 2021, with the probe setting down on Utopia Planitia at 7.18 am on Saturday 15 May 2021, Beijing time (11.18 pm on Friday 14 May, GMT). The Zhurong Rover is equipped with seven kinds of scientific instruments: two remote-sensing cameras, the Mars-Orbiting Subsurface Exploration Radar, the Mars Mineralogy Spectrometer, the Mars Magnetometer, the Mars Ion and Neutral Particle Analyzer and the Mars Energetic Particle Analyzer.

 

An animation shows how the Zhurong Rover touched down. BBC.

The name 'Zhurong' (祝融) was chosen by a popular online vote from a list of ten candidate names. It is the name of a fire god traditionally worshiped in southern China, which ties in with the Chinese name for the planet Mars, Huoxing (火星), meaning 'Fire Planet'.

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Perseverance Rover begins driving across Mars.

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover performed its first drive on Mars 4 March, covering 6.5 meters across the Martian landscape, according to a press release. The drive served as a mobility test that marks just one of many milestones as team members check out and calibrate every system, subsystem, and instrument on Perseverance. Once the rover begins pursuing its science goals, regular commutes extending 200 meters or more are expected.

 

This image was captured while NASA’s Perseverance rover drove on Mars for the first time on 4 March 2021. One of Perseverance’s Hazard Avoidance Cameras captured this image as the rover completed a short traverse and turn from its landing site in Jezero Crater. NASA/JPL/Caltech.

'When it comes to wheeled vehicles on other planets, there are few first-time events that measure up in significance to that of the first drive,' said Anais Zarifian, Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mobility test bed engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. 'This was our first chance to ‘kick the tires’ and take Perseverance out for a spin. The rover’s six-wheel drive responded superbly. We are now confident our drive system is good to go, capable of taking us wherever the science leads us over the next two years.'

The drive, which lasted about 33 minutes, propelled the rover forward 4 meters, where it then turned in place 150 degrees to the left and backed up 2.5 meters into its new temporary parking space. To help better understand the dynamics of a retrorocket landing on the Red Planet, engineers used Perseverance’s Navigation and Hazard Avoidance Cameras to image the spot where Perseverance touched down, dispersing Martian dust with plumes from its engines.

The rover’s mobility system is not the only thing getting a test drive during this period of initial checkouts. On 26 February Perseverance’s eighth Martian day, or sol, since landing, mission controllers completed a software update, replacing the computer program that helped land Perseverance with one they will rely on to investigate the planet.

More recently, the controllers checked out Perseverance’s Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX) and Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instruments, and deployed the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument’s two wind sensors, which extend out from the rover’s mast. Another significant milestone occurred on March 2, or sol 12, when engineers unstowed the rover’s 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm for the first time, flexing each of its five joints over the course of two hours.

'Tuesday’s first test of the robotic arm was a big moment for us,' said Robert Hogg, Mars 2020 Perseverance rover deputy mission manager. 'That’s the main tool the science team will use to do close-up examination of the geologic features of Jezero Crater, and then we’ll drill and sample the ones they find the most interesting. When we got confirmation of the robotic arm flexing its muscles, including images of it working beautifully after its long trip to Mars, well, it made my day.'

Upcoming events and evaluations include more detailed testing and calibration of science instruments, sending the rover on longer drives, and jettisoning covers that shield both the adaptive caching assembly (part of the rover’s Sample Caching System) and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during landing. The experimental flight test program for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will also take place during the rover’s commissioning.

Through it all, the rover is sending down images from the most advanced suite of cameras ever to travel to Mars. The mission’s cameras have already sent about 7000 images. On Earth, Perseverance’s imagery flows through the powerful Deep Space Network, managed by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program. In space, several Mars orbiters play an equally important role.

'Orbiter support for downlink of data has been a real gamechanger,' said Justin Maki, chief engineer for imaging and the imaging scientist for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission at JPL. 'When you see a beautiful image from Jezero, consider that it took a whole team of Martians to get it to you. Every picture from Perseverance is relayed by either the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter, or NASA’s MAVEN, Mars Odyssey, or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They are important partners in our explorations and our discoveries.'

The sheer volume of imagery and data already coming down on this mission has been a welcome bounty for Matt Wallace, who recalls waiting anxiously for the first images to trickle in during NASA’s first Mars rover mission, Sojourner, which explored Mars in 1997. On 3 March, Wallace became the mission’s new project manager. He replaced John McNamee, who is stepping down as he intended, after helming the project for nearly a decade.

'John has provided unwavering support to me and every member of the project for over a decade,' said Wallace. 'He has left his mark on this mission and team, and it has been my privilege to not only call him boss but also my friend.'

With Perseverance departing from its touchdown site, mission team scientists have memorialised the spot, informally naming it for the late science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. The groundbreaking author and Pasadena, California, native was the first African American woman to win both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award, and she was the first science fiction writer honored with a MacArthur Fellowship. The location where Perseverance began its mission on Mars now bears the name 'Octavia E. Butler Landing.'

Official scientific names for places and objects throughout the solar system, including asteroids, comets, and locations on planets, are designated by the International Astronomical Union. Scientists working with NASA’s Mars rovers have traditionally given unofficial nicknames to various geological features, which they can use as references in scientific papers.

'Butler’s protagonists embody determination and inventiveness, making her a perfect fit for the Perseverance rover mission and its theme of overcoming challenges,' said Kathryn Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist for Perseverance. 'Butler inspired and influenced the planetary science community and many beyond, including those typically under-represented in STEM fields.'

'I can think of no better person to mark this historic landing site than Octavia E. Butler, who not only grew up next door to JPL in Pasadena, but she also inspired millions with her visions of a science-based future,' said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science. 'Her guiding principle, ‘When using science, do so accurately,’ is what the science team at NASA is all about. Her work continues to inspire today’s scientists and engineers across the globe, all in the name of a bolder, more equitable future for all.'

Butler, who died in 2006, authored such notable works as Kindred, Bloodchild, Speech Sounds, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, and the Patternist series. Her writing explores themes of race, gender, equality, and humanity, and her works are as relevant today as they were when originally written and published.

A key objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient Microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for Human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with thw European Space Agency, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for Human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

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