First high resolution images from the Mastcam-Z on-board Mars’s Perseverance rover 2021
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NASA has release the first high definition
images with the Mastcam-Z Cam, a 360-Degree Panorama. The University of the State
of Arizona located in Tempe is the leader of operations for the Mastcam-Z
instrument on board Mars’s Perseverance rover whom they are working in
collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.
One of the key objective for Perseverance’s
mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient
microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past
climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first
mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Later missions NASA missions, in cooperation
with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect
these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth
analysis.
The panoramas were stitched from 142 individual
images taken on Sol 3, the third Martian day of the mission on February 21,
2021. (A Sol is a Martian day).
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The first
360-degree panorama taken by Mastcam-Z, a zoomable pair of cameras aboard
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU. |
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A Wind Carved
Rock: This wind-carved rock seen in first 360-degree panorama taken by the
Mastcam-Z instrument shows just how much detail is captured by the camera
systems. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS. |
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Crater Rim:
This shows the rim of Jezero Crater as seen in the first 360-degree panorama
taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS. |
