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Image posted, Image copyright NASA / JPL-CALTECH
The Preserve navigation mast has been raised vertically for the first time since the spacecraft was launched from the ground.
The US space agency NASA has released impressive videos captured by cameras on the Preservation Rover spacecraft of its landing on the surface of Mars.
The videos featured the final minutes of the spacecraft’s spectacular landing, until its robotic wheels touched the planet’s surface.
The videos showed a swirl of dust and pebbles flying as the spacecraft and the missile carrying it approached the surface of Mars near the Jezero crater.
The Perseverance spacecraft was sent to Mars, packed with cameras, seven of which were intended to film the landing on the surface of the Red Planet.
Mike Watkins, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California that is used as the central operating room for missions to Mars, said these impressive videos are an example of the best the agency can do.
“We have taken everyone with us on our travels around the solar system, through the orbits of Saturn, remembering the pale blue dot and amazing panoramas of Mars. It is the first time that we can take pictures of an event such as the landing of a spacecraft on Mars, “he added.
He added: “We will learn something by observing the performance of the vehicle featured in this video. But most of it will guide you through the journey.”
All cameras used for landing photography were of the sports type available on the market that had high rigidity without making significant adjustments.
The cameras were placed in specific places to photograph the main parts of the vehicle’s components, from the launch of the parachute that flies at supersonic speed, through the removal of the heat shield for an entry capsule and the path that the missile carried out. . the ship through space.
The important snapshots spanned four minutes out of a total of seven minutes it took to land on Mars.
“We got 30 gigabytes of information in addition to 23,000 images of the spacecraft landing on Mars,” said Dave Growell, who manned the cameras at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
One of the three cameras pointed at the parachutes did not work properly, but the other six cameras were still working well. NASA had hoped for the success of recording the sound of the landing through a microphone, but unfortunately, that did not work.
Image posted, image copyright NASA / JPL-Caltech
The Preservation spacecraft is equipped with seven other cameras, instruments and microphones.
Nonetheless, the team managed to operate a microphone on the surface of Mars, which should allow the sound of the Perseverance rover to be heard while conducting its exploration missions in the coming weeks. A muffled wind was also heard in the Jizero crater.
NASA had shot videos on Mars before, but they were low quality and looked like “stopped motion” footage. On the other hand, the video clips taken in the vehicle with the Perseverance surprised everyone with the level of clarity and precision of the details.
“I get goose bumps every time I see him,” Gruel said.
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory continue to operate the vehicle’s mission-oriented robot.
Last weekend, the Reserve’s navigation mast was raised to the vertical for the first time, having been folded horizontally since the spacecraft was launched from the ground last year.
The elevation of the navigation mast allowed the operation of the “MasterCam-Z System” for the scientific cameras installed in it, so that the imaging system began to take panoramic pictures of the area around the Jezero crater and the surface of the vehicle. per se. The objective of photographing the surface of the vehicle in the form of panoramic shots to discover the damage that the vehicle may have suffered during the landing by flying stones.
The control team is ready to tackle a difficult task this week, which is to switch from the software used to achieve a safe landing of the vehicle on Mars to other software that allows the robot to move and use various equipment, such as the robotic arm of the vehicle.
Image posted, NASA / JPL-CALTECH
The rover captured the clearest videos of the Martian surface
This process is expected to take four suns, or what is called “Soul” (one Martian day equals 24 hours and 39 minutes). By the end of next week, we may see the first multi-meter test drive the vehicle will travel after operating with the new software.
There is great interest in the miniature helicopter that traveled with the spacecraft, as this 2-kilogram instrument is expected to make the first off-planet flight.
But before that, Preservation needs to first get to the right place to place the aircraft for testing. The planners of this space mission said last Friday that the operational robot of the vehicle could take several weeks to reach the most suitable place for the launch of the miniature plane, suggesting that the small helicopter, which they call “Ingenity”, may don’t fly high. until next April.
The Preserve spacecraft landed in a site that takes the shape of a quadrilateral that the scientists responsible for this space mission called “Chile Canyon”, which is the name of an important national sanctuary in the US state of Arizona.
The robot that operates the vehicle is in a flat area of the Martian surface between two different geological units; The first has a smooth surface with the vehicle’s wheels resting on what appears to be dark volcanic rocks, while the second geological unit is more rugged and is filled with rocks covered with a lot of mineral olivine.
And about 2 kilometers northwest of the landing site is what appears, according to satellite images, to be the remnants of a delta that formed when a giant lake filled Jezero crater billions of years ago.
The delta forms when rivers enter a wider area and are intercepted by water, with amounts of silt and sand deposited. Preservance will search these sediments for signs of bacterial activity in the past.
