NASA Perseverance landed on the lake crater on February 18, which, according to obvious features, was once flooded by water, making it one of the most promising places on Mars where there could be signs of life.
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The crater is located near the equator and Perseverance landed in its western part. Where exactly?
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As we approach the area, we find a large circular (as usual) crater located at the very edge of the Isidis Basin, through which Perseverance would have to cross if it wanted to head directly towards the Insight module and the Curiosity rover. The crater lake itself has a diameter of 49 kilometers and on its western edge we can clearly see a structure with familiar features. It is an ancient river delta.
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As we approach this area, the detailed structures of the delta, or even the bed of an ancient river, which carried with it material, which subsequently settled at the bottom of the lake, will become apparent. We are interested in the area of the western delta, namely the place marked as Olivine-bearing floor. This is where you can notice two small impact craters located in roughly the same latitude.
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When we approach this area again, we find that we are already looking at really small structures, after all, both mentioned craters are only about 0.3 km in diameter. And just the red-bordered place shows the position of the rover.
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Finally, we have a picture from the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) satellite of the European ESA, which found the rover on 23 February using its Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS). And not only that, in the same picture (higher resolution) we have also captured the heat shield on the far right, which separated first, then the rover descended on a parachute, which is captured on the far left with the upper shell, ie it was carried further than the rover itself, even if they are not separated by much more than a kilometer. and about 700 meters away flew away the celestial crane, or Descent Stage, which slowly launched the rover to the surface of Mars. –
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NASA, meanwhile, is still conducting initial inspections of Perseverance systems, but it should soon start moving and poking around in the delta, but before that comes the time for (hopefully) Ingenuity flying.
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