Kéyah soil
contributed by Jeff Johnson
Pebbles and dark sand grains compressed by a Perseverance rover wheel on Sol 30 provide a stark contrast to nearby pristine, dusty martian regolith. The spacing between the ridges on the rover wheels (1.3 inches; 3.3 cm) left an orderly disturbance in the martian soil, much like the footprints left by astronauts on the Moon. Indeed, the wheel tracks imprinted by martian rovers imply a human presence that is familiar to any beachgoer. But here the footprints have been left by our robotic emissary within the remnants of ancient lakebed on an awesome foreign world.
March 21, 2021