This is the first image that NASA’s Perseverance rover sent after touching Mars on February 18, 2021.
New Delhi:
NASA on Monday released a new photograph of the Perseverance rover’s mission to Mars. This was the first acquired image of the mission after touching Mars on February 18, 2021 at the local average solar time of 15:53:58. It was selected by public vote and has been presented as the “Image of the Week” for week 1 (February 14 – February 20, 2021) of the Mars mission.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in front of it using the A-camera.
On Friday, NASA had released new and impressive photographs of Perseverance, including one of the rovers gently lowered to the surface of Mars by a set of cables, the first time that sight was captured.
The high resolution was still extracted from a video taken by the descent stage of the spacecraft that had transported the rover from Earth.
The image of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captures perseverance as it went skydiving through the atmosphere.
At the time, the descent stage was using its six-engine jetpack to reduce speed to about 2.7 miles per hour as part of the “skycrane maneuver,” the final phase of the landing.
The three straight lines are mechanical flanges that hold the rover below the descent stage, while the curly wire was used to transmit camera data to Perseverance.
When the rover hit the ground, it cut 6.4-meter-long cables, allowing the descent stage to move away for its own safe landing.
Another new image, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captures perseverance as it parachutes through the atmosphere at hundreds of miles per hour.
A second color image shows one of the rover’s six wheels, with several honeycomb rocks believed to be more than 3.6 billion years old.
Volcanic rocks, in particular, can be dated with very high accuracy once the samples return to Earth on a future return mission, an exciting development from the perspective of planetary science.
Volcanic rocks, in particular, can be dated with very high accuracy once the samples return to Earth on a future return mission.
The first two images were released Thursday shortly after the rover landed, but had lower resolution and black and white due to the limited data rate available.
NASA expects to have more high-resolution photos and videos in the coming days, but it still doesn’t know if it has successfully recorded the sound on Mars for the first time using microphones.