The Perseverance Mars rover’s “sky crane” descent stage made the final word sacrifice final week, and we now have a photograph to memorialize the flying robotic’s heroic demise.
The rocket-powered sky crane lowered the car-sized Perseverance rover to the ground of Mars’ Jezero Crater on cables final Thursday (Feb. 18), bringing the rover’s harrowing “seven minutes of terror” entry, descent and touchdown (EDL) sequence to a successful end.
Simply after the rover’s wheels touched down, the sky crane flew off to crash-land deliberately a protected distance away — and Perseverance snapped a photograph of the impression’s speedy aftermath, NASA introduced Wednesday (Feb. 24).
Video: Perseverance spots sky crane’s Mars impact plume after touchdown
Associated: NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission in pictures
“A second of respect for the descent stage. Inside two minutes of safely delivering me to the floor of Mars, I caught the smoke plume on certainly one of my Hazcams [hazard-avoidance cameras] from its intentional floor impression — an act that protected me and the scientific integrity of my touchdown web site,” company officers wrote through the mission’s official Twitter account, @NASAPersevere.
A second of respect for the descent stage. Inside two minutes of safely delivering me to the floor of Mars, I caught the smoke plume on certainly one of my Hazcams from its intentional floor impression — an act that protected me and the scientific integrity of my touchdown web site. pic.twitter.com/bG4dekrbvJFebruary 24, 2021
Perseverance documented its EDL in unprecedented element, capturing high-definition video with a number of cameras because it blazed via the Martian sky towards Jezero’s flooring. That epic video exhibits key occasions within the landing sequence, together with the deployment of the mission’s supersonic parachute and the second the rover’s six wheels hit the pink dust.
Different robotic eyes have been watching on Thursday as nicely. For instance, the HiRISE digicam aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the Crimson Planet since 2006, snapped a photograph of Perseverance gliding via the alien skies beneath its parachute. And a day later, HiRISE imaged mission on the bottom — not simply Perseverance, but in addition its sky crane, warmth defend and parachute-backshell combo of their varied resting spots inside Jezero.
Perseverance is the centerpiece of the $2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission, which can hunt for indicators of historic life and accumulate and cache dozens of samples for eventual return to Earth. The rover remains to be going via its post-landing checkouts, nevertheless it has already begun imaging its environment intimately.
For example, the mission staff simply launched a high-definition, 360-degree panorama of the landing site stitched collectively from 142 photos captured by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z digicam system. The beautiful picture offers our greatest look but at Jezero Crater, which way back harbored a river delta that spilled right into a lake lots of of toes deep.
We’ll be taught way more about this mysterious place after Perseverance will get totally up and operating. So keep tuned!
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide concerning the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Fb.
