[ad_1]
From NASA Perseverance rover landed in a rich scientific hunting ground, if his first good glance is a guide.
The size of a car Perseverance has landed on the floor of Jezero crater on February 18, launch of an ambitious surface mission that will search for signs of ancient life on Mars and collect samples for future return to Earth, among other tasks.
Perseverance is not yet ready to dive into this scientific work; the mission team always carries out health and condition checks of its various instruments and sub-systems. But the six-wheeled robot recently used its Mastcam-Z camera suite to capture high definition, 360-degree panorama of its surroundings, and this first taste intrigued the mission team.
Live Updates: NASA Mars Perseverance rover mission
For example, the zoomable panorama revealed a dark stone the team dubbed “Harbor Seal Rock,” said Mastcam-Z principal investigator Jim Bell of the Arizona State School of Earth and Space Exploration University, in a web photo chat on Thursday, Feb.25.
The Martian wind has likely sculpted Harbor Seal Rock into its curious form over eons, Bell said. He also pointed to fixes that showed evidence of much faster erosion – places where thrusters Perseverance “Sky Crane” descent stage blew the red dust blanket off Mars on February 18, exposing the surface of small rocks.
One of these patches houses a cluster of light-colored, heavily pitted stones that caught the attention of mission scientists.
“Are these volcanic rocks?” Are these carbonate rocks? Is it something else? Do they have coatings on them? Bell said. “We don’t know – we don’t have any chemical data or mineral data on them yet – but, boy, they are certainly interesting, and part of the story of what’s going on here is going to be told when we will have more detailed information on these rocks and some of the other materials in this area. “
This is one of the key tasks of Mastcam-Z and the other cameras at Perseverance, Bell said – to spot interesting features that Perseverance can study in more detail with its spectrometers and other scientific instruments.
The 45-kilometer-wide Jezero Crater was home to a deep lake and river delta billions of years ago. Deltas are good at preserving signs of life here on Earth, so the Perseverance team is eager for the rover to study and sample the remnants of this feature in Jezero. And the delta is visible in the Mastcam-Z panorama; the cliffs that mark its edge are about 2 km from the Perseverance landing site, Bell said.
The ridge line visible beyond the delta cliffs in the Mastcam-Z panorama is the rim of Jezero crater, he added.
The recently unveiled photo is just the start, of course. For starters, this is the lowest resolution panorama that the Mastcam-Z team will build. Bell said similar shots that are three times sharper will be put together after Perseverance switches to its surface-optimized software, a four-day process already underway.
And we haven’t yet had the slightest taste of Perseverance’s scientific findings. This work will take some time, as the first major task of the mission team after commissioning the rover is to conduct 4 lb test flights. (1.8 kilograms) Helicopter ingenuity on Mars, who ascended to the red planet on the belly of Perseverance.
Ingenuity’s pioneering sorties – the first rotorcraft flights into a world beyond Earth – will likely take place this spring, and science and sampling is expected to begin in earnest this summer, team members from mission.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link