The latest data from the six-wheeled robot from yesterday’s touch includes a series of images captured as the rover’s “jet pack” landed on the ground.
Less than a day after the NASA Perseverance rover on Mars 2020 successfully landed on the surface of Mars, engineers and scientists at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California worked hard, awaiting the next transmissions from Perseverance. As the data gradually entered, transmitted by several spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet, the Perseverance team was relieved to see the health reports of the rover, which showed that everything seemed to work as expected.
Added to the excitement was a high-resolution image taken during the rover’s landing. While the NASA Curiosity rover sent back a stop-motion movie with his offspring, Perseverance cameras are designed to capture touchdown videos, and this new still image has been taken from those images, which are still transmitted to Earth and processed.
Unlike past rovers, most Perseverance cameras capture color images. After landing, two of the hazard cameras (Hazcams) captured views from the front and rear of the rover, showing one of its wheels in Martian dirt. Perseverance has also come to the fore from NASA’s eye in the sky: and NASA’s Mars Recognition. Orbiter, which used a special high-resolution camera to capture the spacecraft sailing in Jezero Crater, with the parachute in the back. The High Resolution Camera Experiment Camera (HiRISE) did the same for Curiosity in 2012. JPL leads the orbiter’s mission, while the HiRISE instrument is led by the University of Arizona.
More pyrotechnic charges are expected to start later on Friday, releasing the mast of perseverance (the rover’s “head”) from where it is attached to the rover’s deck. The navigation cameras (Navcams), which are used for driving, share space on the mast with two scientific cameras: Mastcam-Z with zoom and a laser tool called SuperCam. The mast is scheduled to be lifted on Saturday, February 20, after which Navcams is expected to take panoramas of the rover’s deck and its surroundings.
In the coming days, engineers will examine the rover’s system data, update their software and begin testing their various tools. In the coming weeks, Perseverance will test its robotic arm and make its first short trip. It will be at least a month or two before Perseverance finds a flat location to give up ingenuity, the mini-helicopter attached to the rover’s belly and even more before it finally reaches the road, starting its scientific mission and looking for the first sample. of Martian rocks and sediments.
More about the mission
A major goal for the mission of Perseverance on Mars is astrobiology research, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the geology of the planet and the climate of the past and will be the first mission to collect and hide the rock and Martian rule, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (the European Space Agency), will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these samples from the surface and return them to Earth for further analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s approach to exploring the Moon on Mars, which includes Artemis Moon missions that will help you prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 perseverance mission and the demonstration of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology for NASA.
For more about perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
nasa.gov/perseverance
News Media Contacts
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-393-2433
[email protected]
Alana Johnson / Gray Tombstone
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-672-4780 / 202-358-0668
[email protected] / [email protected]