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NASA has released stunning new photos of Perseverance, including one of the rover gently lowered to the surface of Mars using a set of cables, the first time such a view has been captured.
The high-resolution still image was taken from a video taken by the descent stage of the spacecraft that had carried the rover from Earth.
At the time, the descent stage was using its six-engine thruster to slow down to a speed of approximately 2.7 km / h as part of the “overhead crane maneuver,” the final phase of landing.
“You can see the dust being kicked up by the rover’s engines,” said Adam Steltzner, Perseverance’s chief engineer, who calculated the shot was taken about six feet above the ground.
The three straight lines are mechanical zip ties that hold the rover below the descent stage, while the crimped wire was used to transmit the data from the cameras to Perseverance.
When the rover landed, it cut the 21-foot-long cables, allowing the descent stage to fly for its own safe landing.
Another new image, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captures perseverance as it parachuted through the atmosphere at hundreds of miles per hour.
Perseverance has also been able to upload its first high-resolution color photograph showing the flat region in which it landed in Jezero Crater, where a deep river and lake existed billions of years ago.
A second color image shows one of the rover’s six wheels, with several honeycomb-shaped rocks believed to be more than 3.6 billion years old next to it.
“One of the questions we will ask ourselves first is whether these rocks represent a volcanic or sedimentary origin,” said NASA deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan.
Volcanic rocks in particular can be dated with very high precision once the samples are brought back to Earth on a future return mission, an exciting development from the perspective of planetary science.
When the first images came in, “it was exhilarating, the team went crazy,” said mission operations system manager Pauline Hwang.
“The science team immediately started looking at all those rocks, zooming in and saying, ‘What is that!’ – It could not have been better “.
The first two images were released yesterday shortly after the rover landed, but they were lower resolution and in black and white due to the limited data rate available.
NASA hopes to have more high-resolution photos and videos in the coming days, but it doesn’t yet know if it has successfully recorded sound on Mars for the first time using microphones.
That could come out later this weekend or early next week, Steltzner said.
Each image tells a story. It captures me in midair, hovering over Mars while hanging from my parachute during the finale. #CountdownToMars.
Last update and images: https://t.co/fnnEOOMWsV pic.twitter.com/39aGp963a3
– NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 19, 2021
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