The rover also returned some nice postcards from its landing site.
The first image shared at a NASA press conference on Friday was “exciting” to the team when they received it. It shows the rover approaching the surface of Mars as it enters, descends and lands. A camera on the spacecraft’s descent captured the perspective, something that was not possible on previous missions.
Small plumes of dust can be seen shooting up from the surface of Mars, stirred by the engines that landed the rover when it was only 2 meters above the surface.
“The team is overwhelmed with excitement and joy to have successfully landed another rover on the surface of Mars,” said Adam Steltzner, the rover’s chief engineer. “When we make such investments, we are making them for humanity, and we are making them as a gesture of our humanity.”
Steltzner cited iconic space images from the Apollo mission, such as Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon, Voyager’s first image of Saturn, and the awesome “Pillars of Creation” photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.
“We can only hope that in our efforts to develop spacecraft and explore our solar system, we can contribute another iconic image to this collection, and I am happy to say that I am hopeful that we can do that today with this one. collection. “
While the first images sent back by the rover on Thursday evening were black and white photos showing that it had landed safely on Mars, color images made available Friday show the characteristic red color of the surface of Mars.
“An open horizon, with so much to explore. Can’t wait to get started,” the perseverance account tweeted.
There are also rocks scattered across the flat surface of the landing site in Jezero Crater, but they are small compared to the large rover wheels.
Another tweet with the image read, “I love rocks. Look at these next to my wheel. Are they volcanic or sedimentary? What story are they telling? I can’t wait to find out.”
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera, which flew over the landing site as Volharding was about to land, captured an incredible image as the spacecraft’s parachutes opened.
“If you look down at the small circle, this was our final touchdown point,” said Aaron Stehura, deputy stage head for entry, descent and landing. “You can see it’s near the river delta that we’ve been talking about.”
Perseverance landed about 2 miles from the river delta in the Jezero Crater, where there was a lake 3.9 billion years ago. The rover will survey the crater and delta over the next two years looking for evidence of ancient life that may have existed when Mars was a more habitable place.