NASA's Mars Perseverance rover will head to “Enchanted Lake” in next few days

NASA's Perseverance team is gearing up to head southwest to another sedimentary outcrop on the Jezero Crater delta called Enchanted Lake. The rover's drive to Enchanted Lake is expected to begin in the next few days with arrival in early September, the agency said on Friday.

Meanhwhile, the team continues to assess the two small, string-like pieces of foreign object debris (FOD) detected on one of the rover's coring bits. The FOD was first identified August 5 in imagery of the rover's sample collection system after a 12th rock core sample was taken.

"We've commanded the rover to move, rotate, or vibrate components we think could harbor FOD. And we’ve obtained multiple sets of images of the components from different angles and in different lighting conditions from rover cameras: Mastcam-Z, Navcam, Hazcam, Supercam, and even the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera located on the rover’s turret. Finally, a thorough review of recent coring and bit-exchange activities confirm that they all executed nominally with no indication of interference from the FOD," Steven Lee, Perseverance Deputy Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. 

Been checking on some small debris in my drill system. I’m designed for a dirty environment, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. Thankfully it looks like I’ll be rolling on soon, headed for this spot my team calls “Enchanted Lake.” Latest blog: https://t.co/XoTOk5YMQY pic.twitter.com/XKu7qnA9UI

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) August 19, 2022

So far, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has collected 12 rock samples at different sites around Jezero Crater on the Red Planet. All the samples of rock and soil collected from the Martian surface by the rover are planned to be returned to Earth in 2033 as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign - a strategic partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).