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Perseverance Rover Updates

These updates are provided by self-selected Mars 2020 mission team members who love to share what Perseverance is doing with the public. Dates of planned rover activities described in these blogs are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Wind-Sculpted Landscapes: Investigating the Martian Megaripple ‘Hazyview’
3 min read

Written by Noah Martin, Ph.D. student and Candice Bedford, Research Scientist at Purdue University While much of Perseverance’s work focuses on ancient rocks that record Mars’ long-lost rivers and lakes, megaripples offer a rare opportunity to examine processes that are…

Dec 19, 2025
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Hi ya! Hyha
2 min read

Written by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. student at Purdue University  NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is currently trekking towards exciting new terrain. After roughly four months of climbing up and over the rim of Jezero crater, the rover is taking a charming…

Dec 17, 2025
Article
A Stranger in Our Midst?
2 min read

Perseverance Encounters a Possible Meteorite Written by Candice Bedford, Research Scientist at Purdue University Oct. 1, 2025 During the rover’s recent investigation of the bedrock at “Vernodden,” Perseverance encountered an unusually shaped rock about 80 centimeters across (about 31 inches)…

Nov 13, 2025
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The Ancient Mars Variety Show
1 min read

Written by Melissa Rice, Professor of Planetary Science at Western Washington University Perseverance accomplished something unusual this week: abrading two dramatically different rocks within the span of a few days. While exploring the Vernodden area along Jezero crater’s rim, the…

Sep 19, 2025
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Perseverance Meets the Megabreccia
2 min read

Written by By Henry Manelski, Ph.D. student at Purdue University Last week, the Perseverance rover began an exciting new journey. Driving northwest of the Soroya ridge, Perseverance entered an area filled with a diverse range of boulders that the science…

Sep 8, 2025
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Over Soroya Ridge & Onward!
2 min read

Written by Eleanor Moreland, Ph.D. Student Collaborator at Rice University Perseverance has continued exploring beyond the rim of Jezero crater, spending time last week at Parnasset conducting a mini-campaign on aeolian bedforms. After wrapping up that work, three separate drives…

Aug 27, 2025
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To See the World in a Grain of Sand: Investigating Megaripples at ‘Kerrlaguna’
3 min read

Written by Athanasios Klidaras, Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University On Mars, the past is written in stone — but the present is written in sand. Last week, Perseverance explored inactive megaripples to learn more about the wind-driven processes that are…

Aug 21, 2025
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Linking Local Lithologies to a Larger Landscape
2 min read

Written by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. Student at Purdue University NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is continuing to explore a boundary visible from orbit dividing bright, fractured outcrop from darker, smoother regolith (also known as a contact). The team has called this…

Aug 7, 2025
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Spheres in the Sand
3 min read

Written by Andrew Shumway, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Washington It is not common for a rover to spot nearly perfect spheres in the soil beneath its wheels. Over two decades ago, the Opportunity rover famously discovered spherules made…

Jul 29, 2025
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Feeling the Heat: Perseverance Looks for Evidence of Contact Metamorphism 
2 min read

Written by Melissa Rice, Professor of Planetary Science at Western Washington University Following a short break for the July 4th holiday, Perseverance drove westward to a site called “Westport,” where the clay-bearing “Krokodillen” unit meets an olivine-bearing rock formation. It…

Jul 22, 2025
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