This photo of Mars rover's descent has NASA awestruck
The world got its first close-up look at a Mars landing on Friday, as NASA released a stunning picture of its newest rover being lowered onto the dusty red surface. NASA equipped the spacecraft with 25 cameras and two microphones, many of which were turned on during Thursday's descent. It's the ninth time NASA has successfully landed on Mars and the fifth rover.
Perseverance will search for signs of ancient life
The photo was released less than 24 hours after the Perseverance rover successfully touched down near an ancient river delta, where it will search for signs of ancient life and set aside the most promising rock samples for return to Earth in a decade.
More photos and audio recording of the descent expected
The rover is shown in extraordinary detail just 6 1/2 feet (2 meters) off the ground, being lowered by cables attached to an overhead sky crane, the red dust kicked up by rocket engines. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, promises more photos in the next few days and possibly also an audio recording of the descent.
'To share it with the world is a victory'
"This is something that we've never seen before. It was stunning, and the team was awestruck. There's just a feeling of victory that we were able to capture these and share it with the world," flight system engineer Aaron Stehura noted at a news conference.
An iconic photo, right up there with other space photos
Chief engineer Adam Steltzner called the picture iconic, putting it up there with photos of Apollo 11's Buzz Aldrin on the moon, Saturn as seen by Voyager 1, and the Hubble Space Telescope's pillars of creation shot. A number of thumbnail images have been beamed down so far, and the team went wild seeing them, informed Pauline Hwang, strategic mission manager for surface operations.
The rover landed on a surface in Jezero Crater
The picture is so clear and detailed that deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan initially thought she was looking at an aminated photo. The vehicle is healthy after landing on a flat, safe surface in Jezero Crater with one degree of tilt and relatively small rocks nearby. The systems still are being checked. It will be at least a week before it starts driving.
It is two kilometers away from the river delta
The river delta awash three billion to four billion years ago is just over one mile (two kilometers) away. Scientists consider it the most likely place to find rocks with evidence of past microscopic life. Another photo of Perseverance's front right wheel, near rocks full of holes, already has scientists salivating. They're eager to learn whether these rocks are volcanic or sedimentary.
The descent was photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
As it did with 2012's Curiosity rover still roaming 2,300 miles (3,750 kilometers) away, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed Perseverance descending beneath its massive parachute. In each case, the spacecraft and chute resembled specks. Curiosity's cameras caught a stop-motion movie of the last two minutes of its descent, but the images were small and fuzzy.
After US, China will attempt to land its own rover
NASA loaded up the heftier Perseverance and its descent stage with more and better cameras and made sure they were turned on for the entire seven-minute plunge through the Martian atmosphere. Meanwhile, China will attempt to land its own much smaller rover in late spring. It's been orbiting Mars for 1 1/2 weeks. The UAE also put a spacecraft into Martian orbit last week.
