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NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover returned its first high-definition panorama, giving a 360-degree look from the surface of the planet using its rotating Mastcam-Z instrument.
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The photo is the rover’s second panorama since Perseverance landed on the planet on February 18. The rover’s navigation cameras – also on the mast – captured another panorama on February 20.
The recently released photo, taken on February 21, was taken using a combination of 142 images. Persistence has already sent thousands of people back to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.
In the distance you can see the edge of the Jezero crater and what NASA describes as the “cliff of an ancient river delta”.
Researchers believe the 28-mile-wide crater was once inundated with water and was home to an ancient river delta more than 3.5 billion years ago.
Much of the mission of Perseverance is to research and attempt to document evidence of ancient microbial life. It will also collect and cache samples of Martian rocks and sediments for later return to Earth.
The Mastcam-Z and the Supercam will be used to provide both imaging and analysis of the mineralogy and chemical composition of the surface. It will assist in the identification of rocks and sediments worthy of consideration by the mission team.
The Mastcam-Z is a dual camera system equipped with high definition video, zoom function and the ability to take full color and 3D panoramic images.
According to the NASA release, the camera can reveal details as small as 0.1 to 0.2 inches in diameter near Perseverance and 6.5 to 10 feet in diameter in the distance.
Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., Is leading the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, in partnership with San Diego’s Malin Space Science Systems, according to JPL.
Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z is similar in design to its predecessor Curiosity, which landed in Gale de Mar Crater in 2012. However, Curiosity’s imaging technology is less advanced.
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“We are tucked away in a great place, where you can see different features similar in many ways to features found by Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity on their landing sites,” Jim Bell, one of the mastcam instrument leaders -Z team, said.
In a panel Thursday, Bell said he and his team had been “blown out of the water” by the footage returning from the Mastcam-Z and that the technologies would only continue to improve in subsequent missions to Mars.
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