NASA's Perseverance Rover Explores Ancient Rocks and Boulders in the Lac de Charmes Region on Mars
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has been actively exploring the “Lac de Charmes” region, an area of valleys and ridges west of the Jezero crater rim featuring some of the oldest rocks encountered during the mission.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has been actively exploring the “Lac de Charmes” region, an area of valleys and ridges west of the Jezero crater rim featuring some of the oldest rocks encountered during the mission. Written by Purdue University Ph.D. candidate Athanasios Klidaras, a September 21, 2026 update detailed that the rover acquired a new SHERLOC WATSON camera image on September 1, 2026, corresponding to Sol 1967 at 16:18:01 local mean solar time.
Throughout 2026, Perseverance traversed a looping path and created 13 abrasion patches, yielding data indicating the presence of igneous, impactite, and mixed-process rocks formed during early planetary asteroid bombardment. Longer and more accurate drives were achieved using a new algorithm utilizing a processor previously used to communicate with the Ingenuity helicopter.
As the Lac de Charmes exploration nears its conclusion, Perseverance visited an area nicknamed “Idubi” containing light-toned boulders, including an abrasion patch named “Badger Peak” that displayed a unique light-and-dark texture. Although sampling this boulder failed due to high hardness, the rover stopped to investigate a nearby outcrop named “Gardenia,” with an abrasion attempt scheduled for the week to assess whether it is a breccia.
