Click to view attachmentJim Bell's LPI talk, which was uploaded to the LPI YouTube channel yesterday, provided a few new details about Perseverance's science campaign which will commence as soon as instrument checkouts are complete (which will be quite soon, if all goes well roughly sol ~100). The video is titled "Delta Bound: Early Exploits of the Perseverance Rover in Jezero Crater"
1) Perseverance's first science campaign will be a loop to the south and back again to the landing site. I always thought that red line was marking a corridor the rover might explore, but he said its actually a (preliminary, non-finalised) plan for a walkabout. I attended a talk on the benefits of walkabouts with regards to Mars rovers in 2019, it's a relatively new strategy of rover exploration that Curiosity trialled at Pahrump Hills. In traditional exploration, a rover basically just drives in a straight line, documenting geological contacts as it goes, whereas in contrast walkabouts involve a reconaissance traverse followed by returning along your route and revisiting certain sites in more detail. It's been demonstrated to boost scientific output in some situations; a major advantage is that the initial reconaissance traverse gives you days/weeks to analyse data and find scientifically interesting sites that you otherwise might have driven past without realising.
2) This campaign might last until the end of 2021
3) They hope to drill 3 or 4 samples in this time, before heading to the delta scarp
4) The lithology at Seitah is inaccessible from the current landing site due to hazardous ripples, however its of scientific importance to collect a sample here because of layering visible in orbital images which could indicate a sedimentary origin. They believe there could be spots along this walkabout where the rover may be able to cross the boundary and take a drill sample
