hermal Performance of the Perseverance Rover During Mars Surface Operations

On July 30, 2020, NASA launched the Perseverance Rover as part of the Mars 2020 (M2020) mission to Mars. On February 18, 2021, the rover landed on the surface of Mars in Jezero Crater at a latitude of 18.5°N. As of the writing of this paper, the rover has completed over 700 sols of surface operations, more than one full Martian year on the surface. Landing occurred during the Martian spring (Ls=5), and the rover has since operated through the summer, fall, and winter seasons. While the rover was originally designed to support a surface mission of 1003 sols, Perseverance has been integrated as part of the planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign to bring samples back from the surface of Mars to Earth for the first time. Understanding the thermal performance of the rover will be essential to ensuring the longevity of Perseverance to perform this mission. This paper discusses the thermal performance of the rover from landing to present day, including predicted versus actual thermal performance, nominal operations, incidents and anomalies, and long-term trending data that will be used to improve energy usage for activities requiring thermal support in the future.