NASA Mars Rover Delivers Triumphant First Photos From Crater’s ‘Lookout Hill’

It’s been a long, hard climb, but NASA’s Perseverance rover has done it. The wheeled Mars explorer reached the rim of the Jezero Crater and paused to take in the view. The rover’s first photos from “Lookout Hill” on Dec. 10 show hills, ridges, scattered rocks and hazy skies. The rover looked over the rim and also back at its wheel tracks. This marks the beginning of a new science campaign after the rover’s adventures inside the crater.

Parts of Mars Perseverance rover appear along the bottom with a view of dark, dusty landscape with rocks and distant hills and hazy skies. — NASA’s Perseverance rover snapped this first view over the rim of the Jezero Crater on Dec. 10 from a spot called “Lookout Hill.”

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Perseverance landed in the Jezero Crater in early 2021 and has since explored an ancient river delta, found organic molecules and built up a collection of rock samples that NASA hopes to one day bring back to Earth for closer study.

“During the Jezero Crater rim climb, our rover drivers have done an amazing job negotiating some of the toughest terrain we’ve encountered since landing,” said Perseverance deputy project manager Steven Lee in a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory statement on Dec. 12.

A sweeping view of a dusty, reddish Martian landscape captured by NASA's Perseverance rover. The image shows sandy terrain with subtle ripples leading to a rocky hill in the distance.