EXPLORING THE JEZERO DELTA FRONT: OVERVIEW OF RESULTS FROM THE MARS 2020 PERSEVERANCE ROVER'S SECOND SCIENCE CAMPAIGN

Amy J. Williams (1) , Patrick Russell (2) , Vivian Z. Sun (3) , David L. Shuster (4, 5) , Katie M. Stack‐Morgan (3) , Kenneth A. Farley (6) , Tyler del Sesto (3) , Rachel E. Kronyak (3) , Jim F. Bell (7) , Olivier Beyssac (8) , Adrian J. Brown (9) , Gwénaël Caravaca (10) , Sanjeev Gupta (11) , Jorge Núñez (12) , Nicolas Randazzo (13) , Justin I. Simon (14) , Meenakshi Wadhwa (7)

1 UF|Geological - Department of Geological Sciences [Gainesville]
2 EPSS - Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences [Los Angeles]
3 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4 BGC - Berkeley Geochronology Center
5 EPS - Department of Earth and Planetary Science [UC Berkeley]
6 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
7 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
8 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie
9 Plancius Research LLC
10 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
11 Department of Earth Science and Engineering [Imperial College London]
12 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
13 University of Alberta
14 JSC - NASA Johnson Space Center

The Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater on February 18, 2021, with the mission goals to explore the geology, astrobiological potential, and modern environment of the crater floor and delta, and to collect and cache well-documented samples for Mars Sample Return. After completion of the “Crater Floor” science campaign [1], the rover conducted a rapid traverse (sols 379-414) to the Three Forks region of the crater floor adjacent to the delta front. From here, Perseverance’s second “Delta Front” science campaign (DFC) began on Sol 415, April 20, 2022. The DFC has explored two lobes of the delta front, the neighboring crater floor, and their contact zone, focusing on the lowest geologic exposures composing the Jezero delta (largely mapped within the delta “thin layered unit” [2]). As of January 1, 2023, Perseverance has covered 14325 km of traverse distance and collected 15 rock sample cores, 2 regolith samples, 1 atmospheric sample, and 3 witness tubes, employing a sample pair strategy where each unique sample is paired with a companion sample core from the same location, to enable the construction of two different caches [3]. After sample depot construction at Three Forks, the DFC will conclude upon re-ascent of the delta front, and the next “Delta Top” science campaign will start.

Keywords: Mars; mars 2020; jezero crater; delta; sedimentology; stratigraphy; delta front campaign

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences; Planetology; Stratigraphy

Amy J. Williams, Patrick Russell, Vivian Z. Sun, David L. Shuster, Katie M. Stack‐Morgan, et al.. EXPLORING THE JEZERO DELTA FRONT: OVERVIEW OF RESULTS FROM THE MARS 2020 PERSEVERANCE ROVER'S SECOND SCIENCE CAMPAIGN. 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Mar 2023, The Woodlands (Texas), United States. pp.1652. ⟨hal-04051994⟩