JPL Scientists on Panel as NASA Prepares Perseverance Mars Rover Update

NASA said Monday it will hold a media teleconference at 8 a.m. Pacific on Wednesday, Sept. 10, to share details of a new finding from its Perseverance Mars rover. The briefing will include a project scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech and built and operates the rover. NASA

According to the agency’s media advisory, the discussion will focus on the analysis of a rock sample known as “Sapphire Canyon,” collected in July 2024 from rocky outcrops along Neretva Vallis at the margin of Jezero Crater.

NASA said the analysis is the subject of a forthcoming science paper. Audio and visuals of the call will stream on the agency’s website.

Participants listed by NASA are Acting Administrator Sean Duffy; Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate; Lindsay Hays, senior scientist for Mars exploration; Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance project scientist at JPL; and Joel Hurowitz, a planetary scientist at Stony Brook University.

Since landing in Jezero Crater in February 2021, Perseverance has collected 30 rock and regolith samples and has six empty tubes remaining, the advisory said. NASA noted that the rover also uses an abrasion tool to examine geologic targets it does not sample and carries a weather station and swatches of spacesuit material to study how they fare in the Martian environment. NASA