NASA’s Perseverance rover is navigating one of its toughest challenges yet—a steep and slippery climb up the western wall of Jezero Crater on Mars. This demanding ascent aims to bring the rover to the crater rim by early December, where it will continue its exploration of new geological formations that could offer clues about Mars’s ancient environment. During this climb, Perseverance has encountered loose, sandy dust and a brittle crust, making traction difficult, but the rover team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is developing new strategies to stabilize its progress. Recently, Per…