NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent a wealth of images back to Earth, and on Feb. 24, NASA released images of Perseverance’s new Home on Mars.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent a wealth of images back to Earth, and on Feb. 24, NASA released the first high-definition panoramic image of Perseverance near its new home on Mars.
Trailblazer used the rotating Mastcam-Z camera instrument to take 360-degree views and photographs of Mars.
On Feb. 18, the Trailblazer rover successfully landed on Mars after seven minutes of terror, and on Feb. 24, NASA released the first high-resolution panoramic image from Trailblazer.
On Feb. 21, the Mastcam-Z camera at the head of the Trailblazer took a series of images during a 360-degree rotation, and then 142 images were assembled into this panoramic image. Trailblazer has sent thousands of photos back to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent a large number of images back to Earth, and on Feb. 24, NASA released its first high-definition panorama. (Handout/NASA/JPL-CALTECH/AFP)
The edge of Jezero Crater, the site of the Trail landing on Mars, is visible in the distance in this image, along with what NASA calls “the cliff face of an ancient river delta.
Researchers believe this 28-mile-wide crater was once flooded and was the origin of an ancient delta.
The scientific community believes that 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago, Mars’ environment was more similar to Earth’s, with warm surface water, a thick atmosphere and a magnetic field, and that “Jezero Crater” should have been a lake with multiple rivers flowing through it, so organic molecules from ancient times are expected to be found in the vicinity.
These panoramas, like previous photos of Mars, are post-processed images, and Trail’s view of Mars contains a lot of light that is not visible to the human eye. The photos, videos and other information it takes will be sent back to Earth via the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a process that takes 11 minutes.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent a large number of images back to Earth, and on Feb. 24, NASA released images of Perseverance’s new home on Mars.
A large part of Trailblazer’s mission is to find and try to prove the existence of ancient microbes, and it will also collect and store samples of Martian rocks and sediments that NASA scientists can analyze when it returns to Earth later.
Mastcam-Z and Supercam will be used to image and analyze the mineralogical and chemical composition of the Martian surface and will help identify rocks and sediments worthy of examination by the mission team.
Mastcam-Z is a dual-camera system equipped with high-definition video with zoom capabilities as well as the ability to take panoramic color and 3D images. The camera can display image detail as fine as 0.1 to 0.2 inches (near Trailhead) and 6.5 feet to 10 feet (from a distance), according to a NASA release.
The Martian surface as photographed by Trailblazer.
Mastcam-Z is similar to Curiosity, and Jim Bell, one of the leaders of the Mastcam-Z instrument, said Trail is in an optimal position to observe a different landscape than the previous Mars rover landing site.
Bell said his team was “blown away” by the amount of images they received from Trailblazer.
Trailblazer will start with a mission to collect Martian rocks and weathering layers (broken rocks and dust), which will begin in 2028.
Here is a 360-degree panoramic video taken by Trailblazer (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech).
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