Three days after his successful landing, he snapped a group of 142 photos of the perimeter of persistence from Jizero Crater.
Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / ASU
The ground control system had already welded an image of the Mars Navigation Camera System over the weekend, but the Mastcam-Z mounted on the robotic arm is able to take much better quality photos.
The Mastcam-Z system, which protrudes from the device in a way that resembles the head, is a more advanced version of the camera on Curiosity Martian, which has been in operation since 2012, and is also capable of zooming (hence the Z).
In the Mastcam-Z images, the crater wall and ancient river delta rocks can also be seen from afar. The camera will be used to locate the sampling location that will be left by perseverance on a subsequent collection mission.
The team managing Perseverance is currently investigating the landing zone environment. After preparations, the Martian-powered drone, Creativity, is expected to be launched later this spring.
Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / ASU
Perseverance is the heart of the $ 2.7 billion March 2020 program, which is also the fourth and largest Martian for Americans, whose mission is to search for traces of life on the red planet. Program site Available here.