The Perseverance rover traveled to the Enchanted Lake, a dried-up body of water in Lake Jezero Crater. The body of water could be one of the best places to collect samples containing likely evidence of microbial life, according to NASA.

Perseverance is expected to reach its destination in early September. By then, the rover's team should have completed checking its equipment and making sure there is no debris in the sampling system.

In recent weeks, Perseverance has collected four sets of samples. The last muster on August 3 clogged the sampling system, which could interfere with future operations. The Perseverance team has tasked the rover with moving and rotating the system's components to get rid of debris, and hope the next sampling goes smoothly.

Perseverance discovered the Enchanted Lake in April 2022. The reservoir got its name, yet unofficial, in honor of a lake similar to it in Katmai National Park in Alaska.

Scientists suggest that the "Enchanted Lake", formed at the confluence of a large river into the Martian lake billions of years ago, is especially well suited for searching for signs of life due to the abundance of sedimentary rocks. However, no matter what Perseverance finds in the dried-up reservoir, they will not study the finds soon: the samples will go to Earth only in the early 2030s.

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