Perseverance rover

Where is Perseverance now?

Perseverance is exploring an area of valleys and ridges just west of Jezero Crater’s rim that its team calls “Lac de Charmes”. In late September 2026 NASA said the rover had ground 13 small abrasion patches into rocks there, and had moved on to a part of the area called “Idubi”. An attempt to drill a core from the boulder where the team ground a patch it named “Badger Peak” failed because the rock was too hard. The rover then stopped to study an outcrop called “Gardenia”, before moving on again.[4]

At the end of its drive on sol 1,980, in mid-September 2026, NASA’s map put the rover at 18.44°N, 77.23°E, about 12 km (7 mi) west of where it landed.[3][5] It reached the top of the crater rim on Dec 10, 2024, after a 500 m (1,640 ft) climb,[10] and in March 2026 it took a selfie at “Arathusa”, on its deepest push west so far.[20]

Is Perseverance still working?

Yes. NASA’s raw-image feed has new pictures from its sol 1,998, taken on Oct 3 and 4, 2026.[19] Today is sol 2,004.

The rover was built to work for at least one Mars year (687 Earth days).[2] It runs on a nuclear power source that made about 110 watts at the start of its mission. JPL expects it to last at least 14 years, losing a few percent of its power each year.[18]

How far has Perseverance driven?

45.13 km (28.04 mi) by sol 1,980, in mid-September 2026, by NASA’s map data.[5] It passed the length of a marathon (42.195 km) on sol 1,890, in June 2026, five years and four months after landing. Opportunity took 11 years and two months to do the same.[6]

That puts Perseverance about 34 m short of the record for the farthest drive on another world: Opportunity’s 45.16 km (28.06 mi).[5][7] NASA hasn’t announced that the record has fallen. We’ll update this page, and write a story, when it does.

Perseverance plans most of its own drives. About 90% of the distance it has driven was driven autonomously, Ars Technica reported after interviewing JPL’s Steven Lee.[8] On Dec 8 and 10, 2025, it made the first drives on Mars planned by artificial intelligence, 210 m and 246 m long; NASA announced them on Jan 30, 2026, and said the routes were planned with Anthropic’s Claude models.[9]

What has Perseverance discovered?

• 01Jezero was a lake. More than 3.5 billion years ago, rivers spilled over the crater wall and filled it with water. Perseverance landed beside the fan-shaped delta one of them left.[1]
• 02A potential biosignature. In September 2025 NASA said a rock core called “Sapphire Canyon”, drilled in July 2024 from a rock called “Cheyava Falls”, holds features that could have been made by life. NASA calls it a potential biosignature: it needs more data, and non-living causes can’t be ruled out.[11] More on our page Is there life on Mars?
• 03Water came back at least three times. In September 2026 NASA reported that rocks in Jezero were changed by water in at least three separate episodes.[12]
• 04Oxygen from Martian air. Its MOXIE experiment made 122 g of oxygen from carbon dioxide in 16 runs. The last was on Aug 7, 2023.[13]
• 05Earth behind Phobos. On Jul 2, 2026, its Mastcam-Z camera watched Earth slip behind Mars’s moon Phobos, the first time Earth has been seen disappearing behind an object from the surface of another planet.[14]

What happens to Perseverance’s samples?

Perseverance seals rock cores in tubes so a later mission can bring them to Earth. NASA counts 30 of its 38 sample tubes as collected, one of them deliberately left unsealed, plus 3 of 5 “witness” tubes that check for contamination. Ten tubes were left on the ground in a backup depot.[15]

For now the samples stay on Mars. Congress’s FY2026 spending agreement, signed into law on Jan 23, 2026, declined to support NASA and the European Space Agency’s Mars Sample Return program,[16] and ESA’s director general said the mission “will not go ahead” under today’s plans.[17] What happened to Mars Sample Return

What is Jezero Crater?

Jezero is a crater 45 km (28 mi) wide on the western edge of a flat plain called Isidis Planitia, just north of Mars’s equator.[1][2] NASA picked it for Perseverance because it once held a lake, and lakes are good places to look for signs of past life.[1]

Where can I see Perseverance’s images?

NASA publishes every raw image the rover sends, usually within days, on its raw-images page.[19] Our Mars photos page shows the newest ones from Perseverance and Curiosity.

Mission timeline

1. Jul 30, 2020Launches on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral.
2. Feb 18, 2021Lands in Jezero Crater.
3. Apr 19, 2021Ingenuity, the helicopter it carried, makes the first powered flight on another planet.
4. Aug 7, 2023MOXIE makes oxygen for the 16th and last time.
5. Jan 25, 2024NASA ends Ingenuity’s mission after 72 flights.
6. July 2024Drills the “Sapphire Canyon” core from the “Cheyava Falls” rock.
7. Dec 10, 2024Reaches the top of Jezero’s rim.
8. Dec 8 and 10, 2025Makes the first drives on Mars planned by AI.
9. June 2026Passes the length of a marathon: 42.195 km driven.
10. Jul 2, 2026Watches Earth pass behind Phobos.

Latest pictures from Perseverance

The newest raw pictures Perseverance has sent home, unprocessed. Each one opens full size on our Mars photos page.

• Perseverance · Sol 2,000Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)NASA/JPL-Caltech
• Perseverance · Sol 2,000Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)NASA/JPL-Caltech
• Perseverance · Sol 2,000Navigation Camera (Navcam)NASA/JPL-Caltech
• Perseverance · Sol 2,000PIXL Micro Context CameraNASA/JPL-Caltech
• Perseverance · Sol 1,999PIXL Micro Context CameraNASA/JPL-Caltech
• Perseverance · Sol 1,999SHERLOC WATSONNASA/JPL-Caltech

Sources

1. NASA Science — Mars 2020: PerseverancePrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
2. NASA NSSDCA — Mars 2020 (2020-052A)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
3. NASA GISS — Mars24: landers and roversPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
4. NASA Science (Perseverance blog) — Mars Has Its CharmesPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
5. NASA Mars rover map data — Perseverance current position (waypoints file)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
6. NASA JPL — NASA’s HiRISE Captures Perseverance Marking a Milestone on Mars (PIA26726)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
7. NASA Science — OpportunityPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
8. Ars Technica — The first self-driving vehicle on Mars has proven to be a smashing successSecondary · checked Oct 4, 2026
9. NASA JPL — NASA’s Perseverance Rover Completes First AI-Planned Drive on MarsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
10. NASA JPL — NASA’s Perseverance Rover Reaches Top of Jezero Crater RimPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
11. NASA — NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last YearPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
12. NASA JPL — NASA Discovery Reveals Complex Water Systems on Early MarsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
13. NASA JPL — NASA’s Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE Completes Mars MissionPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
14. NASA JPL — NASA’s Perseverance Rover Watches Earth Vanish Behind Martian MoonPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
15. NASA Science — Mars Rock SamplesPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
16. U.S. House Committee on Appropriations — Division A – Commerce, Justice, Science: Joint Explanatory Statement (Mars Sample Return, p. 54)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
17. Aerospace America (AIAA) — European Space Agency rethinks Mars plans as it kicks off a mission-dense 2026Secondary · checked Oct 4, 2026
18. NASA JPL — Mars 2020 launch press kit: PowerPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
19. NASA — Perseverance raw imagesPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
20. NASA JPL — NASA’s Perseverance Rover Snaps Westernmost Selfie (PIA26752)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
21. NASA — After Three Years on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Mission EndsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026