NASA’s Perseverance Rover Snaps Westernmost Selfie

05/15/2026 Add Comment

Description

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie on March 11, 2026, the 1,797th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond Jezero Crater. Assembled from 61 individual images, the selfie shows Perseverance training its mast on the “Arathusa” rocky outcrop after creating a whitish circular abrasion patch. The crater’s western rim of Jezero Crater is visible in the background.

The head of a robotic rover looks toward the viewer, above a rocky outcrop in the foreground. The dusty, orange-red Martian surface stretches away toward the crater rim in the distance. The Sun seems to bloom in a hazy sky.

Figure A

Figure A is a version of the selfie in which the rover appears to be looking at the camera.

The head of a robotic rover looks down at a rocky outcrop in the foreground. The dusty, orange-red Martian surface stretches away toward the crater rim in the distance. The Sun seems to bloom in a hazy sky.

Animation (.gif)

Here is a GIF combining the main image and Figure A, in which the rover appears to look up and down.

The selfie is composed of images taken by the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera on the end of the rover’s robotic arm. The images were stitched together after being sent back to Earth.

WATSON is part of an instrument called SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals). WATSON was built by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) in San Diego and is operated jointly by MSSS and JPL.

The rover’s process for taking a selfie is explained in this video.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance:

Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover

About The Author

Ben

I am the owner of Cerebral-overload.com and the Verizon Wireless Reviewer for Techburgh.com. My love of gadgets came from his lack of a Nintendo Game Boy when he was a child . I vowed from that day on to get his hands on as many tech products as possible. My approach to a review is to make it informative for the technofile while still making it understandable to everyone. Ben is a new voice in the tech industry and is looking to make a mark wherever he goes. When not reviewing products, I is also a 911 Telecommunicator just outside of Pittsburgh PA.

Twitter: @gizmoboaks

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I am the owner of Cerebral-overload.com and the Verizon Wireless Reviewer for Techburgh.com. My love of gadgets came from his lack of a Nintendo Game Boy when he was a child . I vowed from that day on to get his hands on as many tech products as possible. My approach to a review is to make it informative for the technofile while still making it understandable to everyone. Ben is a new voice in the tech industry and is looking to make a mark wherever he goes. When not reviewing products, I is also a 911 Telecommunicator just outside of Pittsburgh PA. Twitter: @gizmoboaks