LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – NASA scientists on Friday unveiled striking images of the perfect landing of the Mars Perseverance rover, including a selfie of the six-wheeled vehicle hanging just above the surface of the Red Planet moments before landing.
Color photography, likely to become an instant classic among memorable images in the history of space flight, was captured by a camera mounted on the rocket-propelled descent stage just above the rover, as the spacecraft sized the car he was down to Martian soil on Thursday.
The image was revealed by mission managers during an online news broadcast from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles less than 24 hours after landing.
The image, looking down on the rover, shows the entire vehicle suspended by three cables unscrewed by the sky crane, along with an “umbilical” communication cable. Dust whirlwinds hit by the crane’s rocket propellers are also visible.
A few seconds later, the rover was lightly planted on wheels, its ties cut off, and the crane in the sky – its work completed – flew to collapse at a safe distance, though not before the photos and other data collected during the descent to be forwarded to the rover for storage.
The hanging image of the science lab, striking for its clarity and sense of motion, marks the first such close-up photograph of a spacecraft landing on Mars or any planet beyond Earth.
“This is something I’ve never seen before,” said Aaron Stehura, a deputy chief for the mission’s landing and landing team, describing himself and his colleagues “amazed” at the first viewing of the image.
INSTANT ICONIC
Adam Steltzner, chief engineer for JPL’s Perseverance project, said he found the image instantly iconic, comparable to the image of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin sitting on the moon in 1969 or images of the Voyager 1 spacecraft about Saturn in 1980.
He said the viewer is linked to a landmark moment that represents years of work by thousands of people.
“You are brought to the surface of Mars. Sit there, seven meters from the surface of the rover, looking down, ”he said. “It’s absolutely exciting and evokes those other images from our experience as human beings moving in our solar system.”
The image was taken right at the end of the so-called “seven-minute terror” descent sequence that brought Perseverance from the top of Mars’ atmosphere, traveling at 12,000 miles per hour, to a light touch on the floor of a vast pool called Jezero Crater. .
Next week, NASA hopes to present more photos and videos – some possibly with sound – made by all six cameras fixed on the descending spacecraft, which show several maneuvers of the sky crane, as well as the deployment of the supersonic parachute that preceded it.
Pauline Hwang, the manager of the strategic mission, said that the rover itself “works very well and is healthy on the surface of Mars and continues to be extremely functional and wonderful.”
The vehicle landed about two kilometers from high rocks, at the base of an ancient river delta carved into the corner of the crater billions of years ago, when Mars was warmer, wetter and probably hospitable to life.
Scientists say the site is ideal for pursuing the main goal of perseverance – searching for fossilized traces of microbial life preserved in sediments that are believed to have been deposited around the long-lost delta and lake it once fed.
The samples of rock drilled from the Martian soil are to be deposited on the surface for eventual recovery and delivery on Earth through two future robotic missions on the Red Planet, since 2031.
Another color photo published on Friday, taken a few moments after the arrival of the rover, shows a rocky stretch of land around the landing site and what appear to be the rocks of the delta in the distance.
The mission’s surface team will spend the next few days and weeks unfolding, deploying and testing the vehicle’s robot arm, communications antennas and other equipment, aligning instruments and upgrading the rover’s software, Hwang said.
She said there would be about nine “soles,” or Martian days, before the rover was ready for its first test.
One of the tasks of Perseverance before you start looking for signs of microbial life will be to deploy a miniature helicopter that will transport you to Mars for an unprecedented alien test flight. But Hwang said the effort is still about two months away.
Reporting by Steve Gorman; Edited by Daniel Wallis