In August, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover began its fifth science campaign — the rover’s most ambitious yet. The campaign has seen Perseverance climb the western rim of Jezero Crater and face its steepest and most challenging terrain yet, all the while continuing to take surface samples and look for signs of ancient microbial life. Currently, Perseverance is expected to crest over the crater rim in early December.
However, teams have faced many challenges with navigating up the crater rim. Much of the terrain Perseverance has been driving over is much more slippery than initially thought, which has slowed the rover’s progress up the crater rim. More specifically, the crater rim terrain has been found to be loosely packed dust and sand with thin and brittle crusts, leading to the rover’s wheels slipping significantly.