Mars Has Its Charmes

What happened

21, 2026 After a long hiatus, the Perseverance rover updates page is back. A lot has happened on Mars in the meantime, and with regular updates now resuming, there is plenty to catch up on — Perseverance has been busy.

1, 2026 (Sol 1967, or Martian day 1,967 of the Mars 2020 mission) at the local mean solar time of 16:18:01. The rover has spent 2026 exploring the “Lac de Charmes” area , an area of valleys and ridges west of the Jezero crater rim that represent a “wild west frontier” for the mission.

The rocks in this area are among the oldest Perseverance has encountered. They formed when Mars was still a young planet bombarded by asteroid impacts, long before the sedimentary rocks inside Jezero crater formed in rivers and lakes.