This labyrinth – with a silhouette of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes at its center – is used as a calibration target for the cameras and laser that are part of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), one of the instruments aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover . The image was captured by the Autofocus and Context Imager on SHERLOC on May 11, 2024, as the rover team sought to confirm it had successfully addressed an issue with a stuck lens cover.
The Perseverance rover searches for signs of ancient microbial life , to advance NASA’s quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. The rover is collecting core samples of Martian rock and soil (broken rock and soil), for potential pickup by a future mission that would bring them to Earth for detailed study.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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