'Something we've never seen' - Mars rover beams back selfie
The image was taken at the very end of the so-called "seven-minutes-of-terror" descent sequence.
By Reuters, February 20, 2021
NASA's Perseverance rover descends to touch down on
Mars in a still image from a video camera aboard the descent stage
taken February 18, 2021. (photo credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/REUTERS)
NASA scientists on Friday presented striking early images from the picture-perfect landing of the Mars
rover Perseverance, including a selfie of the six-wheeled vehicle
dangling just above the surface of the Red Planet moments before
touchdown.
The color
photograph, likely to become an instant classic among memorable images
from the history of spaceflight, was snapped by a camera mounted on the
rocket-powered "sky crane" descent-stage just above the rover as the
car-sized space vehicle was being lowered on Thursday to Martian soil.
The
image was unveiled by mission managers during an online news briefing
webcast from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles
less than 24 hours after the landing.
The
picture, looking down on the rover, shows the entire vehicle suspended
from three cables unspooled from the sky crane, along with an
"umbilical" communications cord. Swirls of dust kicked up by the crane's
rocket thrusters are also visible.
Seconds
later, the rover was gently planted on its wheels, its tethers were
severed, and the sky crane - its job completed - flew off to crash a
safe distance away, though not before photos and other data collected
during the descent were transmitted to the rover for safekeeping.
The
image of the dangling science lab, striking for its clarity and sense
of motion, marks the first such close-up photo of a spacecraft landing
on Mars, or any planet beyond Earth.
"This
is something we've never seen before," Aaron Stehura, a deputy lead for
the mission's descent and landing team, describing himself and
colleagues as "awe-struck" when first viewing the image.
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