Countdown To Mars General Chat

[Zidane]

On February 18, 2021 at 20:55 UTC, the Perseverance rover touched down on the surface of Mars.

The flight down was successful and, by all accounts, picture-perfect. The rover landed in the 50-kilometer-wide Jezero crater, within about a kilometer of the "bull's-eye" targeted.

The first proper pictures have been released. Just remarkable

 

[Mouth]

The first proper pictures have been released. Just remarkable

I know the scientists want specifics but as a layperson I just love the pictures.

 

[Crabtree]

I'm itching to see all the photos and videos of the whole descent. It seems a crackers way of getting something down on the surface, but it's the second time it's worked so it's clearly sound, I just think it will be great to see actually happening rather than an animation.

 

[Franco Pinion]

Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter makes an appearance.

 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1362948845944987648

 

[Crabtree]

Awesome video of the moment the rover lands on Mars

 

[Crabtree]

The first full colour panorama of the Jezero Crater landing site of the NASA Mars Perseverance rover ?

 

[Tom]

Very nice 360 views (draggable, hold mouse button while viewing). A great way even just to see the parts on the rover itself.

This video shows the first 360-degree view of the landing site of NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars, as captured by the rover's color Navigation Cameras, or Navcams. The Navcams are on the remote sensing mast (or "head") of the rover. Perseverance possesses the most cameras of any Mars rover to date, with 19 on the rover. Perseverance landed on Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. These images were obtained on February 20, 2021.

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

Not all browsers support viewing 360 videos. YouTube supports their playback on computers using Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera browsers. For best experience on a mobile device, play this video in the YouTube app.

 

[Boot Cleaner]

That was simply stunning footage. The sky behind when the parachutes opened. For some reason that, for me, really hits home that this is a whole other world. For decades we have had, admittedly pretty cool, photos of rocks and the ground and the occasional space squirrel but the quick glimpse of a sky that looks so similar to our own was fantastic. Hopefully the cameras are sensitive enough to get some decent night shots. Would be fantastic to see the Martian night sky in HD photos.

 

[Ray Gin]

Was listening to some of the engineers who worked on the sky crane, which was originally conceived 15 years ago for Curiosity, and the video of it delivering Perseverance is the first time they've actually seen it working as designed. Obviously they tested all the aspects of it extensively on earth, but that was the first time they saw it working as a complete unit.

 

[8-Ball]

It's absolutely incredible, honestly, most of my mates brush it off as boring but when you look at the big picture, the launch windows, the length of the journey, all the planning. So impressive!