NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

What a time to casually see the surface of another world.

Hmmm. Very nearly back to the site of abrasion patch #38, I see. I wondered if they would drive the rover to the nearest geologic contact, after seeing all the difficulty we've been having in the clay-bearing zone. Patch 38 fractured badly, too, but at least we were actually able to make the abrasion.

This mission really has seen a night and day difference since we summited the rim toward the end of 2024. I was taken aback last (Earth) year at seeing how quickly the science team was driving Percy up the inner rim, but now? The traverse map on the outer rim looks closer to the path a human geologist would take when learning a field site - learning the lay of the land, then back and forth, stopping for detailed work. And it's summer here at the field site, too. After all that this rover has seen and done in 4 Earth years, I really wouldn't have imagined how new and invigorating this crater rim campaign would be. So much to see, in such a small area...