Sneak peek at Perseverance

NASA has released behind-the-scenes videos during the final moments of the Perseverance rover’s entry, descent and landing on Mars last week.

“Percy” is equipped with 19 cameras with an additional four on the entry, descent and landing hardware, which allowed for full coverage of the process. The high-definition cameras were put to work from 11km above the surface to show the supersonic deployment of the parachute to the rover’s touchdown on the Red Planet.

It was also the first time a Mars rover carried a microphone to collect sounds, with the first set of sounds from Mars being a slight breeze past Percy.

“We’ve been working very hard since we landed. The surface team has been getting the rover set up for the surface mission, making fantastic progress,” director of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Michael Watkins told reporters.

“You’ll see some brand-new images and videos that we acquired over the weekend and these are really fantastic images on the surface of Mars and the rest of the descent.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to capture an event like the landing of a spacecraft on Mars,” he said.

Once set up, Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology: it will characterise the planet’s geology and past climate and search for signs of ancient microbial life. This will prepare for future trips for human exploration on the Red Planet.

According to Nasa’s official website, the Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger Moon to Mars programme, with Percy gathering information that prepares for future human exploration of Mars.