Percy has had plenty of trouble in the last few months abrading and drilling rocks that are weak and prone to fracturing, which has cost the mission a fair bit of time - but it’s easy to forget the rim of this great big crater that we’re exploring presents other problems to the rover.

In the end, Perseverance couldn’t overcome the sandy 20-degree slopes of this portion of the rim, and we drove away after three separate climbing attempts (sols 1578, 1579, 1590). I doubt that the rover was ever in any real danger of getting stuck on this surface, but it does show that we’ve a ways to go in learning to drive on Mars even now…