New images of NASA’s Perseverance Rover, along with its parachute, heat shield and descent stage, were captured on February 23, 2021 by the CaSSIS camera aboard ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO).
TGO spotted the Perseverance Rover, along with its parachute and back shell, heat shield and downhill stage, in the Jezero crater region of Mars. Image Credit: ESA / Roscosmos / CaSSIS / A. Valantinas.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, which landed on Mars on 18 February 2021 in Jezero Crater, will address scientific objectives with the highest priority for Mars exploration.
It was developed under NASA’s Mars exploration program and looks for signs of microbial life in the past and characterizes the climate and geology of the planet.
It will also collect samples of Martian rocks and dust for a future Mars Sample Return mission to Earth, paving the way for the exploration of the Red Planet by humans.
Perseverance, the largest, heaviest robotic Mars rover that NASA has built, is based on the Curiosity rover configuration.
It has a car size, is about 3 m long (not the robot arm), 2.7 m (9 feet) wide and 2.1 m (7 feet). But at 1 255 kg it weighs less than a compact car.
His robotic arm is equipped with a rotating revolver, which includes a rock drill, scientific instruments and a camera.
TGO spotted the Perseverance Rover in Jezero Crater on Mars. Image Credit: ESA / Roscosmos / CaSSIS / P. Grindrod.
The TGO spacecraft provided important data distraction services around the landing of perseverance, including supporting the return of the videos and images taken by the missions aboard the mission during the descent of the Rover to the surface of Mars.
“TGO will continue to provide data delivery support between Earth and Mars for NASA’s surface missions, and for the next ExoMars mission, which will see European Rosalind Franklin rover and Kazachok surface platform arrive at the Red Planet in 2023,” said ESA researchers.
“At the same time, TGO continues its own scientific mission, focusing on the analysis of the planet’s atmosphere, with special emphasis on the search for gases that can be linked to active geological or biological processes.”