Specialists of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) received images taken at the time of landing of the Perseverance rover ("Perseverance») to the Red Planet. They were demonstrated on Friday at a briefing broadcast on the NASA website.
"This image shows the Perseverance spacecraft suspended on cables under the lander at the time of descent to the surface of Mars," said Adam Steltzner, the project's chief engineer. According to him, the photo was taken from the lander when the rover was at an altitude of about two meters above the surface of the Red Planet.
NASA specialists demonstrated several more images. Among them is a photo of the rover at the time of its descent by parachute in the Martian atmosphere, taken from the MRO orbital probe (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, from English."The Martian Orbital Scout").
Another photo was taken using a camera mounted on Perseverance itself, which captured one of its wheels on the surface of the Red Planet. The image clearly shows the stones, dotted with small holes, the nature of which is planned to establish the experts of the American space Agency.
The Perseverance rover landed near the Jezero crater. All operations during it were carried out in automatic mode. Now, all systems and equipment will be checked within a few months. NASA experts expect to use Perseverance to detect traces of the existence of life on Mars in the distant past, TASS notes.