Mars Rover Perseverance: First color photos show the landing and the area around it

Within hours of its successful landing on Mars, the NASA rover sent more photos to Earth. Unlike the predecessor Curiosity, this time it was filmed on video, but it is still airing on Earth. The preview now shows the rover hanging on the descent stage that brought it safely to the surface. There are two first-color photographs of the rover’s immediate vicinity and a picture of a breaking parachute taken from the orbiter of the Mars Reassessment Orbiter.

Has arrived safely

Perseverance landed safely on Thursday as soon as the Red Planet arrived. Everything apparently worked as planned by the engineers. First the braking parachute slowed the vehicle to enormous speed, then the descent stage braking rockets reduced the rover to walking speed and deposited it at a point arbitrarily selected by the rover. Diligence is now known as the Jessero Gorge, where long ago there was a water bed. Landing the NASA rover was more of a challenge than its predecessors, not only because Curiosity was so easy, but also because it had a very rough terrain in the Xero gorge.

As NASA now explains, Now additional products to prepare the rover for work. The purpose is to raise the hand of the first panoramic photographer of the area on Saturday. In addition, the transmitted data must be verified, the rover software updated and various tests performed. Diligence will then carry out the first test run in the coming weeks. The U.S. space agency explains that it took two months for the rover to drop the ingenious helicopter it had brought with it. Only then will the rover begin to inspect its area.

(mho)