Perseverance Looks Toward ‘Lac de Charmes’
Figure A
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to capture this view of a location nicknamed “Mont Musard” on Sept. 8, 2025, the 1,618th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This view also captures another region, “Lac de Charmes,” where the rover’s team will be looking for more rock core samples to collect in the year ahead. Mars’ atmospheric dust was particularly low at the time the imagery was collected, providing a clear view of mountains 52 miles (84 kilometers) away.
This natural-color mosaic is made from three separate images, each of which was acquired using all of Mastcam-Z’s filters to provide some color and allow scientists to assess the diversity of minerals prior to driving into this terrain.
Figure A is the enhanced-color version, which had its color bands processed to improve visual contrast and accentuate color differences
Managed for NASA by Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.
Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.
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