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The Mars Perseverance rover captured a photo on February 18, 2021 of its own descent stage crashing into the surface of Mars and causing a plume of smoke. Image via POT.
One of the coolest shots we’ve seen of Perseverance on Mars so far came from the day of his successful landing, February 18, 2021. Minutes after landing, Perseverance managed to look into the distance and capture a picture of his own stage of decline. crash landing on the surface of Mars.
What is the descent stage? His role in the Perseverance landing was brief, but vital. The descent stage is the rocket-powered section that deployed after the parachute. It was necessary in part because the atmosphere of Mars is so thin that parachutes alone cannot guarantee a soft enough landing. The descent stage kept the rover stable just above the surface of Mars, as the rover was deployed to the surface of Mars via cables. The descent stage was not designed to land safely. After deploying the rover, it flew some distance and crashed. That is what Perseverance captured in this image.
Perseverance is busy on Mars surveying its surroundings and recording everything it sees. Report your findings with a lovable, anthropomorphized Twitter account. @NASAPersevere. His tweet about the crash landing on the descent stage was one of the first.
A moment of respect for the descent stage. Within two minutes of safely bringing myself to the surface of Mars, I caught the plume of smoke in one of my Hazcams from its intentional impact on the surface, an act that protected myself and the scientific integrity of my landing site. pic.twitter.com/bG4dekrbvJ
– NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 24, 2021
Artist’s concept illustrating the landing of Perseverance on Mars, via NASA.
As you may have already heard, or realized, Mars is the only planet that we know to be populated by robots. A total of 18 spacecraft have been put into orbit around Mars, eight of which are still in operation. Of the Mars rovers sent to the surface of Mars, five are still operational: Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance.
A Mars orbiter, the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, also captured Perseverance on the surface of Mars, at its landing site. He managed to find the rover and pieces thrown in the descent, then tweeted a picture:
There you go @NASAPersevere! Did I finally get a chance to take a photo of you in your new home? #CountdownToMars
? @ExoMars_CaSSIS https://t.co/Zl2FhZ2Z8q #ExploreFarther #Mars pic.twitter.com/1CoOrs1r1S– ExoMars Orbiter (@ESA_TGO) February 25, 2021
The rover is near the bottom center of the image, with the heat shield as a dark circular dot on the upper right, the descent stage on the left (and in the plume photo above), and the white parachute and the back shell shiny on the surface. on the far left. You can see in the top view the large ridge between the rover and the descent stage the rover is facing in the image above.
Since 1960, nine countries have sent missions to orbit Mars or attempt to land on its surface, and many of them have literally crashed and burned.
In February 2021, three missions successfully reached Mars, both in orbit and on the surface. Perseverance was one. The other two were the UAE’s Hope mission and China’s Tianwen-1.
Many spacecraft have attempted to land on Mars, but few have succeeded. Image via Al Jazeera.
Bottom line: Perseverance, NASA’s Mars rover, tweeted a photo of the plume of smoke resulting from the descent stage impact.
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