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The world got its first close look at a landing on Mars when NASA released an impressive image of its new rover being lowered onto the dusty red surface.
The photo was released less than 24 hours after the Perseverance rover successfully landed near an ancient river delta, where it will search for signs of ancient life and reserve the most promising rock samples to return to Earth in a decade.
NASA / AP
This photo provided by NASA shows the Perseverance rover lowered towards the surface of Mars during its powered descent.
NASA equipped the spacecraft with a record 25 cameras and two microphones, many of which were turned on during the descent.
The rover is shown in extraordinary detail just two meters above the ground, being lowered by cables connected to an overhead crane, red dust kicked up by rocket motors. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, promises more photos in the coming days and possibly also an audio recording of the descent.
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“This is something we’ve never seen before,” flight systems engineer Aaron Stehura said at a news conference. “It was impressive and the team was in awe. There is a sense of victory in having been able to capture them and share them with the world. “
Uncredited / AP
This photo provided by NASA shows the first color image sent by the Perseverance Mars rover after landing yesterday.
Chief engineer Adam Steltzner called the image “iconic,” placing it there with photos of Buzz Aldrin from Apollo 11 on the moon, Saturn as seen by Voyager 1 and the Hubble Space Telescope’s “pillars of creation” shot.
Several thumbnail images have been transmitted so far, too many to count, said Pauline Hwang, strategic mission manager for surface operations. “The team went crazy” seeing these first images, he said.
The image is so clear and detailed that project associate scientist Katie Stack Morgan at first thought she was looking at a photo from an animation. “Then I took it twice and said, ‘That’s the real rover!’ “
The vehicle is healthy, according to officials, after landing on a flat, safe surface in Jezero Crater with only one degree of incline and relatively small rocks nearby. For now, the systems are still under review. It will be at least a week before the rover starts driving.
Uncredited / AP
This photo provided by NASA shows one of the six wheels of the Perseverance Mars rover.
The river delta, flooded 3 billion to 4 billion years ago, is just over two kilometers away. Scientists consider it to be the most likely place to find rocks with evidence of past microscopic life.
Another photo of Perseverance’s right front wheel, near hole-ridden rocks, already has scientists salivating. They are eager to know if these rocks are volcanic or sedimentary.
It is the ninth time NASA has successfully landed on Mars, and the fifth rover.
Just as it did with the 2012 Curiosity rover, which is still 3750 km away, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed Perseverance descending under its massive parachute. In each case, the spaceship and ramp looked like specks.
Curiosity’s cameras captured a stop-motion movie of the last two minutes of its descent, but the images were small and blurry. NASA loaded the heaviest perseverance and its descent stage with more and better cameras, and made sure they were on for the entire seven-minute dive into the Martian atmosphere.
China will try to land its own much smaller rover in late spring. It has been orbiting Mars for a week and a half. The United Arab Emirates also put a spacecraft into Martian orbit last week.
