Mars update
All About Space keeps you up to date with Perseverance’s movements
Perseverance might not be the first rover to land on Mars – a small plaque mounted on it shows it is the youngest member of a ‘family tree’ of Red Planet rovers – but it is certainly the most capable so far. Almost groaning under the weight of cameras and scientific instruments, nuclearpowered Perseverance set down safely on Mars in a cloud of billowing orange dust on 18 February, and since then has begun to explore Jezero crater.
Perseverance’s mission is simple and exciting: it’s on a quest to look for evidence that Mars once had life. It will do that by studying rocks and material inside the crater, specifically within the layers of ancient sediment that form a striking, fan-shaped delta that pushes into the crater from the west. While it would be thrilling for the rover to spot a fossil sticking out of the rock, it’s much more likely that any evidence it finds of past Martian life will take the form of chemical traces – blips on a chart. Perseverance will also collect samples of material from Jezero crater and leave them there for a future mission to collect and bring home for study using instruments that can’t be taken to Mars. Perseverance is our best chance yet of answering one of the oldest, most exciting and tormenting questions in science: was there once life on Mars?
Touchdown
Because Perseverance and the support hardware used to land it safely on Mars were fitted with more cameras than any previous mission, we have been treated to some truly unique images, including this one showing the rover actually touching down on the surface of the Red Planet. This high-resolution still image is part of a video taken by several cameras that whirred and clicked away as the rover landed in Jezero crater. A camera aboard the descent stage captured this shot, which shows Perseverance surrounded by a billowing cloud of dust as its wheels touched the surface for the very first time. Also visible is the tether connecting the rover to the descent stage.
Falling through the Martian sky
In this immaculately timed image taken on 18 February 2021 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the descent stage holding the Perseverance rover can be seen falling through the Martian atmosphere, with its parachute trailing behind. The image also shows the target of the Perseverance mission – an ancient river delta, entering Jezero crater from the left. Before Perseverance arrived, many professional and armchair scientists alike were hoping HiRISE would capture an image of it beneath its parachute, just as it photographed Curiosity’s dramatic arrival a dozen years earlier. Taking this image required precise timing and a lot of clever flying by the MRO team.
Blowing away the dust
The red colours and strange shapes visible in this striking image might make you think of something seen in the operating theatre of a hospital, but what it actually shows are streamers – whirls and curls of fine Martian dust being blown away from Perseverance’s landing site as it was lowered down to the surface by its descent stage. It was taken by the camera mounted on the bottom of the rover.
Perseverance’s parachute
Possibly one of the most striking images taken on landing day, this shows Perseverance’s huge parachute lit from behind by the Sun. Hundreds of these images were taken, which were later combined to make a stunning video showing the parachute swaying and billowing in the wind. When this particular image was taken, the parachute was fully inflated, lowering the rover down gently to the surface. That pattern on the parachute isn’t just a random collection of panels, however. It’s a message, sneakily written in a special code, spelling out the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s motto: Dare mighty things.
The heat shield falls away
This remarkable image, taken by Perseverance’s Lander Vision System Camera (LCAM), shows the rover’s heat shield dropping away towards Mars after being released from the back shell during the spacecraft’s descent through the Martian atmosphere. This was the first use of the system at Mars, which compared images from below the spacecraft to an onboard map, helping to guide the spacecraft to a safe landing spot in Jezero crater. Past missions had deemed Jezero crater too hazardous to be a landing site because of its cliffs, dunes and boulders, but using LCAM the rover was able to find and steer itself down to a safe landing site close to the preserved remains of an ancient river delta. Without LCAM, a landing in such a ‘busy’ area would have been impossible.
Safely on the ground
The HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s MRO didn’t just take an amazing image of Perseverance falling towards Mars on the end of its parachute; it also took this stunning view of the rover after it had landed on the surface. Taken the day after landing, this image is a close up taken from a larger image showing several different parts of the Mars 2020 mission landing system that got the rover safely on the ground. The bright ‘fans’ on either side of the rover are areas where the exhausts of the descent stage’s engines blew away the dark dust from the surface, exposing lighter rock and material underneath.
Get the balance right
Taking pictures on the surface of Mars isn’t as simple as it sounds. Very special cameras are needed to operate in its harsh, frozen environment, and then things like the dust in the air and the weaker sunlight there combine to shift the colour of images away from those the naked eye would see. Spacecraft sent to Mars are fitted with ‘calibration targets’ which allow the team back on Earth to balance the colours of their images and recreate the view much more accurately. This image, taken by the mast-mounted Mastcam-Z camera on 20 February 2021, the second Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance’s mission, shows Mastcam’s primary-colour and grayscale calibration target – the colourful, circular object in the right foreground – as well as the camera’s secondary calibration target, the small colourful L-bracket just below the primary target. On the left you can see the surface of Mars, covered with rocks and dust.
Perseverance opens its eyes
Very shortly after landing – even before the cheers in Mission Control had died down – Perseverance sent back a handful of images taken by the hazard avoidance cameras (hazcams) on its underside. But because the cameras still had their protective caps on to prevent them being damaged by dust kicked up during the landing, those images were blurry and indistinct. But soon those caps were popped off, and then Perseverance began sending back images like this: the first high-resolution colour image to be sent back after its landing. Now the mission scientists got their first proper look at the landing site, seeing a typically Martian scene – a vast, open plain littered with rocks beneath an orange-pink sky.
First drivE
Once a rover like Perseverance has landed safely on Mars, it can’t just rev its engine and set off across the desert like it’s starring in a Martian Fast and Furious film; its many systems have to be checked out thoroughly and patiently to ensure they weren’t damaged during the descent and landing.
However, eventually it’s time for the wheels to turn for the first time. On 4 March 2021, after weeks of preparation, Perseverance completed its first short drive. This image, taken by the rover’s navigational cameras, shows the rover’s first tracks on the dusty surface of Mars.
First colour panorama
This panoramic view, taken on 20 February by the navigational cameras, or navcams, aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, was stitched together from six individual images after they were sent back to Earth. It was the first time the mission scientists – and everyone following the mission around the world – realised how rocky and dangerous the terrain around the landing site was, appreciating just how successful Perseverance’s landing system had been in finding somewhere safe for it to set down in Jezero crater.
A fascinating future destination?
When the first images came back from Perseverance, they showed this intriguing feature – a remnant of the delta, detached from the main body, which many scientists are very keen to examine with Perseverance’s suite of instruments. This hill of crumbling rock is about 2.3 kilometres (1.4 miles) to the west of the Perseverance landing site and is about 200 metres (660 feet) across. The image has been colour-balanced to show approximately what the scene would look like if we viewed it with human eyes.
Mars in ‘real colour’
If you stood next to Perseverance on the floor of Jezero crater, what would you actually see? Would it look as red or as pink as it does in the photos? This image, taken on 5 March 2021 by one of the rover’s navigational cameras, was colour-calibrated to show the approximate view an astronaut standing on Mars would enjoy. It shows the tracks left on the dusty surface from the rover’s first drive and an area scoured by the descent stage’s rockets – the lighter coloured area in the middle ground – as it gently lowered Perseverance to the surface.