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