Even though amazing pictures of Mars had been captured and sent to Earth by the Perseverance rover, a 360-degree view of the red planet is yet another interesting view of the Jezero Crater which will be the new home of the Perseverance rover for the entirety of its lifetime.
The success of the Perseverance mission has further promoted the red planet among Earthlings and the space agency had continued to share different images captured by the rover.
One of the cool things is the stitching of some 142 photos from the rover’s camera which is created using high-definition 360-degree panorama of Mar’s surface.
The image, released Wednesday shows all sides of the Jezero Crater which is a 28-mile-wide ancient Martian lake bed that scientists believe could hold proof of microbial lifeforms on the planet tback when it had liquid water.
The panorama was made possible by the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument, a pair of cameras on its mast, which can rotate in a complete circle. The cameras have powerful zoom capabilities to enable scientists to inspect tiny details.
The Mastercam-Z is able to record high definition videos and 3D images of the planet’s surface. The camera mast will continue to serve as the eyes of the rover which will be used to determine which of the rocks are worth sampling as well as those that should be collected and returned back to Earth during a future mission.
“We’re nestled right in a sweet spot, where you can see different features similar in many ways to features found by Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity at their landing sites,” Jim Bell, one of the leaders of the Mastcam-Z instrument team, said in a press release. (Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity are three of NASA’s prior Mars rovers.)
The Panorama image was also turned to a video which can be dragged from left to right in other to see the views from the Perseverance’s point of view.
While the rover is yet to fully commence its survey on the red planet, NASA has already published as much as 4,600 images from the rover and there are more to come in the near future as it takes time for information to reach Earth from Mars.
“It’s been a firehose of data,” Justin Maki, a Perseverance imaging scientist and the chief of the instrument-operations team, said at a press conference Monday.
The new photos reveal the sand dunes, rocks, and distant 200-foot-tall cliffs of the Jezero Crater. It’s the most hazardous terrain any Mars landing has targeted.
“I review images for Mars, like, every day. That’s what I do. And when I saw these images come down, I have to say, I was truly amazed,” Maki said. “I know it’s been a tough year for everybody, and we’re hoping that maybe these images will help brighten people’s day.”
The success of the mission will open up more information about the potential human colony of the planet Mars in the future even though there are so many hindrances which could affect how soon we could transform or terraform the planet to Earth 2.0.
