Mars Rock Rochette
Image Credit:
NASA,
JPL-Caltech
Taken on mission sol 180 (August 22) this sharp image from a Hazard
Camera on the Perseverance rover looks out across a rock strewn floor
of Jezero crater on Mars.
At 52.5 centimeters (21 inches) in diameter,
one of the rover's steerable front wheels is at lower left in the frame.
Near center is a large
rock nicknamed Rochette.
Mission planners don't want to avoid Rochette though.
Instead Perseverance will be instructed
to reach out
with its 2 meter long robotic arm and
abrade the rock's surface,
to determine whether it has a consistency
suitable for obtaining a sample, slightly thicker than a pencil,
using the rover's coring bit.
Samples collected by Perseverance would be returned to
Earth by a future Mars mission.