The rover snapped photos of its wheel tracks in the Martian dirt. Now NASA engineers and scientists are plotting Perseverance's route to an ancient river delta. NASA's Perseverance rover left its footprints on Mars on Thursday after going for its first drive. The jaunt proved the vehicle can make its way around the red planet. Since Perseverance landed in Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, it has been calibrating its instruments and upgrading software. In this initial drive, Perseverance moved about 13 feet (4 meters) from its landing spot, made a 150-degree turn to the left, and backed up about 8 feet (2.5 meters) — a routine that it "executed perfectly," according to NASA engineer Anais Zarifian.