The USA flag adorns an aluminum plate mounted on the base of the mast, or “head,” of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. This image of the plate was taken on June 28, 2025 (the 1,548th day, or sol, of the mission), by the WATSON (Large Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) digital camera on the top of the rover’s robotic arm.
WATSON, a part of an instrument known as SHERLOC (Scanning Liveable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemical substances), was constructed by Malin Area Science Methods (MSSS) in San Diego and is operated collectively by MSSS and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. JPL, which is managed for the company by Caltech, constructed and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Learn more about Perseverance’s latest science.