Interesting engineers unveiled new “miraculous” pictures from Perseverance Mars rover Friday, featuring an impressive view from above showing the six-wheeled robot dropping to the surface of a Jezero Crater with its rocket rearguard.
Another photo, this one taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter while flying over the landing site at the rover’s landing on Thursday, showed a sauce-shaped aeroshell on Perseverance hanging under the parachute of the rover. rover against a backdrop of Crater Jezero.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The the first color picture from the surface also displayed, courtesy of a hazard avoidance camera, or “hazcam,” mounted just below the Stability’s body showing a crystal clear view of the debris-covered ground where the rover crashed.
For Adam Steltzner, chief engineer of the Sustainability mission and the man who controlled the descent of the Curiosity to Mars in 2012, the image of Sustainability that was dismissed from above was not very encouraging.
“The team is enthralled by the joy and excitement of landing successfully on Mars,” he said.
Showing iconic images from past space influences from astronaut Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon to Hubble Space telescopePillars of Creation“and a stunning image of a Saturn circle, Steltzner said,” We can only hope … that we will someday be able to add another iconic image to this collection. “
NASA / JPL-Caltech
“I hope we can do this today with this,” he said, reflecting a view of Sustainability from above. “These are wonderful images that we have had the opportunity to take and are still getting down from the surface. .. and we hope to see them in the days to come. “
Sustainability landing Thursday ended a seven-month journey from Earth covering 293 million miles.
The last part of the journey, and far more dangerous since its launch, the seven-minute descent from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the floor of Jezero Crater used supersonic parachutes, new systems for avoiding hazards and the rocket-powered rescue rate that reduced the rover to a touchdown.
“I’m happy to say that the rover is doing very well and is healthy on the surface of Mars,” said Pauline Hwang, deputy strategic mission manager.
Perseverance’s spectacular “sky crane” movement hit the surface in an area known as Canyon de Chelly, just past a vast delta shape stretching out from the edge of Jezero Crater. The delta is made up of deposits that brought in a river that once cut a channel in the edge of the pit.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
Perseverance examines deposits on the Jezero floor and the delta, collecting rock and ground samples that may be present as “biosignatures,” remnants of microbial life in the past. NASA is working with the European Space Agency on plans to retrieve the samples at the end of this decade and bring them back to Earth for analysis.
“To say that the Sustainability science team is excited that this rover will be safe on Mars is an understatement,” said Katie Stack Morgan, project associate. “We’ve been waiting years for the rating. seo. And we are finally here. “
But first, engineers plan to spend several weeks activating the rover’s communications systems, updating its computer software, studying its science instruments, unlimbering and testing its rover. robot arm and release a small helicopter to test the ability to fly in the thin martian atmosphere.
Over the weekend, engineers plan to build a Perseverance remote sensing mast so that high-resolution cameras can get panoramic views of the rover’s upper body and its surroundings in a Jezero predator. The software update, a four-day process, is expected to take place later next week.
In the meantime, new photos from the rover’s dramatic descent and possibly a video are expected before Monday as NASA plans another press release.