It’s precisely three years since NASA’s rover, Perseverance, touched down on Mars in spectacular style.
With Curiosity and others having already reached the martian floor in earlier missions, Perseverance isn’t the primary NASA rover to have landed on the space planet. However due to improved cameras, the footage of its touchdown was by far probably the most exceptional, with a number of angles capturing the rover’s closing descent in excessive definition:
The unimaginable video was captured by cameras that have been a part of the rover’s entry, descent, and touchdown equipment. “The views embrace a digital camera trying down from the spacecraft’s descent stage (a sort of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its touchdown website), a digital camera on the rover trying up on the descent stage, a digital camera on the highest of the aeroshell (a capsule defending the rover) trying up at that parachute, and a digital camera on the underside of the rover trying down on the martian floor,” the area company stated in feedback accompanying the video.
NASA’s Mars staff on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California marked the third anniversary of Perseverance’s touchdown in a put up on social media on Sunday that shared some latest stats concerning the rover mission.
JPL revealed that within the final 12 months, Perseverance has traveled greater than six miles throughout Mars’ Jezero Crater and brought greater than 116,000 pictures, all of them beamed again to the mission staff on Earth for a extra detailed look.
Blissful landiversary, @NASAPersevere! 🥳
What did our robotic explorer accomplish in its third yr on the Pink Planet?
– Traveled over 6 miles (~10.6 km)
– Surpassed 1,000 sols
– Noticed mud devils
– Took greater than 116K photographsDiscover the rover in 3D: https://t.co/MtTrtWuzUG pic.twitter.com/Jm6uTFjEAR
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) February 18, 2024
Perseverance’s actions embrace a seek for proof of historical microbial life on the purple planet. As a part of its explorations, the rover has been gathering rock and soil samples that shall be collected by the upcoming Mars Pattern Return Mission and transported to Earth for cautious evaluation in laboratory situations.
A shout-out also needs to be given to Ingenuity, the diminutive drone-like machine that Perseverance deployed to the martian floor quickly after touchdown. In April 2021, Ingenuity made historical past by changing into the primary plane to carry out powered, managed flight on one other planet — no imply feat contemplating Mars’ super-thin ambiance. The helicopter carried out method higher than anticipated, taking to the skies 72 instances over practically three years earlier than it was rendered inoperable simply final month after sustaining harm to one in all its propellers.
As for Perseverance, it’s hoped that the rover will be capable of proceed its work for years to come back, a definite risk contemplating that one other NASA Mars rover, Curiosity, continues to be operational practically 12 years after arriving there.
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