INITIAL MASTCAMZ MULTISPECTRAL RESULTS FROM THE PERSEVERANCE ROVER’S EXPLORATION OF THE MARGIN UNIT IN JEZERO CRATER, MARS.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is currently exploring an ancient lacustrine environment at Jezero crater to characterize the regional geology, seek signs of ancient life, and cache samples for future return [1]. Since Sept. 2023, the rover has been investigating the crater’s western margin (“margin unit”) that exhibits strong carbonate spectral signatures from orbit previously hypothesized to be related to authigenic precipitation within the Jezero paleolake [2]. Insitu investigations have focused on constraining emplacement and alteration history of the margin unit rocks to better understand the timing and geological context within the history of Jezero crater [3]. Here we present a summary of multispectral observations collected by the MastcamZ instrument during the margin unit science campaign.