The persistent rover has been on the rise since Thursday, when the rover landed on Mars. Its mission only lasted a few days, and NASA can already show off some very interesting material from the planet’s surface.
At the USAID press conference Monday, among other things, a video clip shows most of the landing craft (the so-called “Seven Minutes of Terror”). The first audio recording was also released from the surface of Mars.
The first picture might not be that cheerful
The first image was downloaded from the surface of Mars by the rover just minutes after it landed on the surface of Mars. The famous black and white frame of a wide-angle lens (large barrel distortions are visible) was still hidden behind a transparent protective cover. There was a group of people on the internet who quickly complained about the poor imaging quality of a machine valued at over 2 billion Dollars.
Mars through Percy lens Mars through Percy lens
In fact, NASA wanted to send an image to Earth that would confirm a successful landing on Mars as quickly as possible. Photo quality was secondary. There was still a lot of dust around the rover, which was being turned over during the landing, and the camera lens caps had to stay in place until the dust settled.
The following photos taken for some time after landing look much better. NASA makes it available regularly after being sent by the rover to Earth. Due to the limited transfer speed, not all images can be transferred at once.
Nearly 5,000 images from Mars
NASA has created an album where we can see all the “raw” photos taken by the cameras of the Mars 2020 mission. Percy took most of the photos, and had up to 19 cameras on board. There are still two cameras attached to the Ingenuity helicopter, and two others were on the rocket platform that safely lowered the probe to the surface of Mars.
The image was captured by the rover while on Mars come in. NASA / JPL-Caltech
The entire album of photos taken by the March 2020 mission on the red planet currently contains fewer than 4,800 photos (more will definitely come), but most of them are miniatures at very low resolution.
The image was captured by the rover while on Mars come in. NASA / JPL-Caltech
However, there are also quite a large number of full size images, 1119 pieces (we can separate them by selecting the appropriate option in the filter). They are made with many different tools, so some parts are colored and some are monochrome.
The image was captured by the rover while on Mars come in. NASA / JPL-Caltech
It can be “raw” images of Mars Found in this place.
NASA showed an amazing panorama of Mars
However, the Panorama of Mars, published by NASA on Monday, looks more interesting. The images were taken on February 20, 2021 (the second day on Mars) by the rover’s navigation cameras. Six single high-resolution frames are affixed to the panorama (already on the ground).
Panorama of Mars from the orbiter come in. NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory
On the YouTube channel run by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a high-definition 360-degree video has also appeared showing a tombstone panorama as a spherical video. Thanks to this, by dragging the image with the mouse, we can look around Mars, and observe the planet from the rover’s perspective.
Moreover, NASA plans to send more panoramic images to Earth with higher resolution. Of course, there will also be thousands of other images.
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