Nasa releases video of rover’s landing
LONDON: Nasa has unveiled a firstofitskind video the Mars Perseverance rover captured as it touched down on the red planet, and released the first sound recorded on the surface of Mars.
The minutelong footage is of the rover recording itself while landing on the planet on February 18, the first time such video has been captured.
It shows the parachute deployed for landing, and the Martian surface below, with the rover getting slowly closer to landing, and dust on the surface being rapidly disturbed before it finally touches down.
The agency also released audio of the first sounds ever recorded from the surface of Mars.
A microphone on the rover captured a gust of wind on the red planet, and the sounds of Perseverance.
The agency also released new images the rover took on the Martian surface.
The rover blasted off from Earth last July. It took more than 11 minutes for news of the safe landing to reach Earth, arriving on Friday morning (US time). Perseverance — a laboratory the size of a car — will scour for signs of ancient microbial life in a mission that will return samples to Earth and prepare the way for future human visitors.
Perseverance will gather rock and soil samples and store them on the Martian surface, ready for a return mission to bring about 30 samples to Earth in the early 2030s.