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Perseverance’s journey to ‘Broom Point’

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Perseverance’s journey to ‘Broom Point’

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This orbital map shows the path NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took to reach a place the science team has called the “Broom Point Member,” a sequence of layered bedrock that is likely more than 3.9 billion years old. As planned, the rover landed inside Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. It investigated the crater’s western delta and the valley of the entrance river, Neretva Vallis, before reaching the summit of the crater rim in December 2024 following an 800-meter (2,620-foot) ascent from rim to ridge.

The Broom Point region is located on the outer edge of the crater rim and was visited by the rover in mid-2025. The yellow dot indicates the location where the rover took a selfie.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. Arizona State University leads operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, manufacturing, testing and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen on the design, manufacturing and testing of the calibration targets.

For more information about Perseverance: science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/

JPL manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built MRO and supports its operations. The University of Arizona in Tucson operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information, visit:

science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter

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