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FP TrendsMay 06, 2020 09:35:45 IST
In an attempt to fully explore Mars, the NASA space agency has equipped its Perseverance rover with the most advanced pair of “eyes”.
NASA aims to study the geological features of the Jezero crater via Rover Perseverance.
Mastcam-Z, located at the head of the rover, will help the mission to create 3D images more easily. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used Mastcam to produce panoramas of the Martian landscape.
While Mastcam-Z can zoom in on images, Mastcam cannot. In addition to providing images, Mastcam-Z will provide “key data to help engineers navigate and scientists choose interesting rocks to study.”
A close-up of the head of the Mars Perseverance remote sensing mast. The neck head contains the SuperCam instrument (its lens is in the large circular aperture). In the gray squares below the mast head are the two Mastcam-Z imagers. On the outer sides of those image readers are the rover’s two navigation cameras.
Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech
“The original plan was for Curiosity to have a zoom camera that could extend to an extreme wide angle, like a western view of spaghetti,” said Jim Bell of Arizona State University, principal investigator for Mastcam-Z and deputy principal investigator. from Mastcam.
He added that it was difficult for them to execute the plan at that time.
Mastcam-Z has the ability to see the surroundings under various wavelengths of light. With this feature, NASA aims to discover the various materials on the surface of Mars, such as fallen meteorites.
The instrument will provide “superhuman vision”, helping to see landscapes in a variety of colors, including ones that the human eye cannot detect.
It is not a spectrometer, an instrument that uses light to do detailed scientific analysis, but “it can provide mineral clues that other instruments will follow.”
Mars 2020 mission is expected take off on July 17.
NASA is preparing to launch astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into space in May 27 in association with private aerospace company SpaceX.
This is happening almost 10 years after the last Space Shuttle Program took off (2011) from the Kennedy Space Center.
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