The rover also returned some beautiful postcards from its landing site.
The first image shared at a NASA press conference on Friday was ‘exciting’ for the team when they received it. It shows how the robber is near the Mars surface during boarding, disembarking and landing. A camera on the spin-off stage of the spacecraft captured the perspective, something that was not possible with previous missions.
Small dust plumes can be seen pushing up from the Martian surface, agitated by the engines landing the crossbar when it was only 6.5 feet above the surface.
“The team is overwhelmed with excitement and joy that they have successfully landed another rover on the surface of Mars,” said chief engineer Adam Steltzner. “When we make such investments, we do it for humanity, and we do it as a gesture of our humanity.”
Steltzner quoted iconic space images from the Apollo mission, such as Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface, the first image of Voyager from Saturn, and the Hubble Space Telescope’s awesome “Pillars of Creation” photo.
‘We can only hope in our efforts to design spacecraft and explore our solar system, that we can add another iconic image to this collection, and I’m glad to say that I’m hopeful that we can do this today. “
While the first images returned by the rover on Thursday night were black and white glimpses on which it landed safely on Mars, color images available Friday show the distinctive red color of the Mars surface.
“An open horizon, with so much to explore. Can’t wait to get started,” the Perseverance account tweeted.
Rocks are also spread over the flat surface of the landing site in the Jezero crater, but it is small compared to the large wheels.
Another tweet with the picture reads: “I like rocks. Look at this next to my wheel. Is it volcanic or sedimentary? What story are they telling? Can’t wait to find out.”
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera, which flew over the landing site while Perseverance was entering for a landing, got an incredible view when the spacecraft’s parachutes opened.
“If you look at the small circle, it was our ultimate point to touch,” said Aaron Stehura, deputy phase leader for entry, descent and landing. “You can see it’s near the river delta we were talking about.”
Perseverance landed about 1.9 kilometers away from the river delta function in the Jezero crater, which offered a lake of 3.9 billion years ago. The Rover will explore the crater and delta for the next two years in search of evidence of ancient life that may have existed when Mars was a more habitable place.