The Perseverance mission vehicle landed on February 18 at 9:43 PM CET as planned in the Martian crater Lake. A minute later, exactly as planned, it began operations.
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After the first black-and-white and not yet very sharp images sent directly from the landing, NASA has now shown the first color photographs sent by the Perseverance vehicle. And also other photos from the landing.
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Photo of the truck after landing. The big wheel of the vehicle was captured by one of the color-resolution cameras
Photo: NASA
The landing site, the crater Jezero, was not chosen at random. According to scientists, the lake used to be full of maybe fresh water.
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The first color photo a Perseverance vehicle sent from Mars
Photo: NASA
In the crater, the machine, which brought a small twin-rotor Ingenuity reconnaissance helicopter, will search for information on possible ancient life and collect samples that should be transported back to Earth in one of the later missions, according to NASA.
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The Perseverance vehicle has already launched an Ingenuity reconnaissance helicopter on Mars
Photo: NASA
The Ingenuity helicopter had already been launched from the vehicle. But it is far from the only thing the machine carries with it. Seven other instruments are prepared for research of surface and subsurface structures of the planet and their chemical analysis, measurement of temperature, wind speed and direction, size and shape of dust particles, verification of oxygen production technologies from atmospheric carbon dioxide, taking panoramic images and searching for organic compounds.
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