Since successfully touching Mars on February 18, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has been sending back some spectacular images of our planetary neighbor.
It includes a set of images released by NASA last week, showing Mars in beautiful detail. The spectacular color photos were captured on February 24 with the Rover’s Mastcam-Z camera system.
They show the arid landscape of the lander’s landing site – the 28-kilometer-wide Jezero crater. Researchers believe that this area was home to a river delta billions of years ago, making it a promising place to look for signs of ancient microbial life.
The Mastcam-Z consists of two cameras – the photos taken on February 24 were captured by the one on the left side of the rover.
According to NASA, these cameras can zoom in, focus, and take high-speed 3D photos and videos, enabling detailed examination of objects.
The main task of the camera system, which weighs a total of about 9 pounds, is to take photos of the Martian surface and functions in the thin atmosphere of the red planet.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU
Mastcam-Z is mounted on the mast of the rover at the eye level of a person six and a half feet tall, and each camera is separated by about 10 inches to provide 3D stereo vision.
Jim Bell, chief investigator for the Rover’s Mastcam-Z instruments, said in a statement before the launch of the mission: “Mastcam-Z will be the mainstay of NASA’s next Mars Rover.”
The system enables scientists to zoom in on rocks and help determine what signs of ancient life may contain. The rover can then collect these rocks and place them in special tubes in deposited places on the surface. Future missions to Mars will hopefully be able to pick up these rock samples and return to Earth for detailed analysis.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU
Mastcam-Z can also help scientists understand the terrain of Mars, including rock and soil structures, while also identifying signs of ancient lakes, streams and other water-related features.
The zoom of the system is so powerful that Mastcam-Z can see features as small as a housefly from a distance equal to the length of a soccer field, according to NASA.
The system can also record 360-degree panoramas. In fact, Mastcam-Z has already taken one spectacular panorama, consisting of 142 individual images, taken on February 21st.
NASA says Perseverance is the most sophisticated rover the space agency has ever sent to Mars, with several advanced technologies. The rover also has a unique technology experiment – a helicopter known as ‘Ingenuity’ – that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
