The Perseverance rover team has released the first color photos of Mars from its arrival point at Jezero crater. A panoramic view shows a flat landscape, dominated by a sandy surface from which some smaller rocks and stones emerge. In the background you can see an elevation in the ground.
In an informational meeting about the status of the rover after its first hours on Mars, an image was also published, taken with a camera installed in the ‘jetpack’ – the structure with retro missiles from which Perseverance was dropped tied with cables. of nylon from a tap. The color photo shows the rover still in the air, just before its wheels hit the ground.
Another image features a representation of one of the rover’s wheels sitting on a sandy surface with rocks and loose stones surrounding it. It is interesting to know whether they are of volcanic or sedimentary origin.
Perseverance, whose systems are in good working order after being tested upon arrival on the red planet, will look for signs of ancient microbial life, collect carefully selected samples of rock and regolith (fractured rock and dust) for future return to Earth, will characterize the geology and climate of Mars and pave the way for human exploration ‘in situ’.
Their destination is a basin where scientists believe an ancient river flowed into a lake and deposited fan-shaped sediment known as a delta. Scientists believe the environment here likely preserved signs of every life that happened billions of years ago.