by Stacy Liberatore
NASA has released new images of the Perseverance rover on Mars, including a shot taken during the ‘seven minutes of terror’ when it endured tumultuous conditions that battered the craft as it entered the Martian atmosphere and approached the surface.
The $2.2.billion rover touched down on the Martian surface Thursday following a 239 million mile journey and scientists say it is ‘doing great and is healthy on the surface, and continues to be highly functional.’
The American space agency shared an exciting image shot by the craft orbiting Mars that shows Perseverance, nicknamed Perky, slung beneath the sky crane and attached to curly electrical cords – moments before making landfall.
‘The moment that my team dreamed of for years, now a reality. Dare mighty things,’ the Perseverance team tweeted as it shared the image on Twitter.
The image also captured the dusty and rocky Mars surface below, exciting NASA of what possibilities lie ahead for its beloved Perky.
‘This shot from a camera on my ‘jetpack’ captures me in midair, just before my wheels touched down,’ NASA shared in a follow-up tweet.
Minutes after Perky began rolling around Mars, it snapped a picture of its wheel surrounded by the dusty landscape using its 20 megapixel color camera.
Adam Steltzner, the chief engineer on the project, said Perseverance is an ‘epic effort’ that represents eight years and ‘over 4000 human years of investment and the latest images shows that the work has paid off.
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NASA shared an exciting image shot by the craft orbiting Mars that shows Perseverance, nicknamed Perky, slung beneath the decent stage and attached to curly electrical cords – moments before making landfall
The sky crane maneuver is the final landing stage that was used when Curioisty landed on Mars in 2012.
The detailed images shows the long Nylon cords lowering Perseverance to the Martian surface, along with the rover’s mechanics and wheels danging in the air.
After the rover touched down, the sky crane flew away to a safe location where its landing would not cause any damage to the mission.
Perseverance sent its first image of the crater back moments after NASA established radio contact with the rover Thursday, which shows the rover’s first look at the Martian world in black and white
Perseverance beamed back its first image of the crater moments after NASA established radio contact with the rover (left). The rover beamed a new image back without the camera lens that shows the Martian landscape in full color
After landing, two of the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) captured views from the front and rear of the rover, showing one of its wheels in the Martian dirt
The image was snapped while the rover cameras were still covered with lenses, but a new photo of the same area gives ‘our first color image from the surface of Mars,’ Pauline Hwang, Surface Mission Operations Systems (MOS) Manager, said during NASA’s live press event.
Hwang said ‘we went wild’ when Perseverance’s first image was received by the team.
‘The team just went crazy for… we were just kind of like on cloud nine… weird, dreamlike state,’ she continued.
‘Just the clarity, and just the reality of it, it was just unbelievable.’
Although Perseverance had many obstacles ahead of it from the moment it left Earth…
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