Something today possessed me to look back at my Jezero crater map and overlay the Perseverance rover’s actual track onto it. Here’s the robot’s progress up out of the lake and into the Ylla hinterlands! It may eventually reach the Tachi Forest.

I drew this map in an intentional pulpy, sword-and-planet style with many references to Martian stories from science fiction. (Sometimes with my own spelling variations to obfuscate a little.) Thuvia is the Princess of Mars from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ tales. The patterned ground of the Hiroko Lands is named after a character from Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. Jonz is a reference to the Martian Manhunter from DC Comics. Tachi is the original name of the Rocinante from The Expanse. And the Zsa Islands are after The Queen of Outer Space, an in-joke targeted at a very small audience.

An element of real science to this map is that I did base the water level on information I found for the predicted appearance when the lake was full. When I originally drew this map, I was a little disappointed that the rover landing ellipse was fully in the water; the main science target was the river delta formed by sediment flowing into the lake. But I knew the plan was for the rover to climb. I oriented the composition looking up toward the river, to suggest that progression. I’m thrilled to see that, by now, the rover has climbed its way up the delta and into the lake’s surrounding highlands, right in the middle of my composition.