English: The base image for this clipping is the large ESP_068294_1985 MRO photo of the MC13 Syrtis Major quadrangle of Mars acquired with the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). This specific cutout displays the operations area of the first months of the Mars-2020 mission started in February 2021. Image encloses the soutern part of Séítah area in Jezero crater seen as a nose-shaped triangle jutting into the main crater floor from north-west.

The USGS/NASA geological map of the Jezero Crater region on Mars defines the area of Séítah as one of localities of the the Lower etched unit (NIe), which lies adjacent to the Jezero floor unit (Njf), embaying the NIe. Thus, in 2021 the path of Perseverance rover was laid along the geological the border between the two above-mentioned areas in a counterclockwise direction south from the landing site, seen in the upper right corner of this image.

MRO’s mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona in Tucson provided and operates HiRISE.

Mars-2020 is the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) and the key objective for the Perseverance rover is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. JPL was built and manages

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, manages the operations of the Perseverance rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.

Credits: NASA/JPL/UArizona