Perseverance Rover - Finding Ancient Life on Mars

could've sworn I heard one of the Scientists in the room promise Hi Rez images on landing day ?

Hopefully they'll address that in the next briefing.

NASA Live

NEXT LIVE EVENTS

Feb. 19, Friday
...
1 p.m. — Perseverance Mars Rover post-landing briefing

a reply to: Jbird

I heard it would be the next day the high resolution images are available, which should be today with any luck.

Actual photo of Percy taken by the descent imaging camera on the Skycrane shortly before touchdown:

Source

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First "clear" image from Percy: an open horizon, with so much to explore:

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twitter.com...

a reply to: jeep3r

First more clearly defined rocks close to one of Percy's wheels:

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a reply to: Jbird

You beat me to it!

a reply to: jeep3r
Todays pics are awesome!
Much better quality,and I think real colour?
The sky looks nice and blue!

This is shaping up to be the coolest mars mission so far.

a reply to: jeep3r

seems strange we're having to go looking for images instead of getting them off of the Perseverance Mission site.

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/images/


mars.nasa.gov...
HiRISE captured the descent.

was wondering if this would happen ... again

The extreme distance and high speeds of the two spacecraft were challenging conditions that required precise timing and for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to both pitch upward and roll hard to the left so that Perseverance was viewable by HiRISE at just the right moment.

edit on Sat Feb 20 2021 by Jbird because: (no reason given)

a reply to: Jbird

Indeed, I've also been checking the Perseverance RAW image gallery and couldn't find them there yet. But maybe NASA/JPL are currently not yet channeling those images directly to that website (perhaps due to the press conference).

However, I'm confident they'll be updating the gallery pretty soon with all the latest stuff from all the different cams!

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Fully agree, Mastcam-Z will take some really great shots of the terrain and all its features. They did some adjustments to the imaging system and filters compared to Curiosity's Mastcam. Most notably, the camera will be able to zoom in from a distance (the length of a soccer field) to identify features as small as a "house fly".

More details can also be found at the links below:

Mastcam-Z - General Description

Mastcam-Z - In-depth and very detailed article

a reply to: Jbird

Catching a picture of a science lab landing on an alien planet , that's classy.


I think with the competition hotting up it's time to find life, before they do.

I looked at the Curiosity images for years. Still do, occasionally. Only very rarely saw anything that looked like life as we know it. And it was very unimpressive.


I mean, it's not this, but this is just odd looking rocks:


I got dozens of these. Maybe this new robot will find something for real. Who knows? Personally, I think it's a dead planet. I could be wrong.

While we're waiting, here's the descent capture from Curiosity, to compare to Perseverance when it comes out.

I can't wait to see the images and/or video from the helicopter. I hope it ventures into some of the canyons.

a reply to: Jbird

Thanks for this video. I've been wanting to see a descent video for a while now.

originally posted by: lostbook
I can't wait to see the images and/or video from the helicopter. I hope it ventures into some of the canyons.

Me too.
Its sent data back to earth today which says its all working normally:
edition.cnn.com...

It has a still image camera only I think,and I can't see them sending down any canyons but we should get some cool pics of the rover from the air if it works.
The deep canyons would be an awesome target for future missions though.


This is a cool vid all about the Ingenuity copter:
www.youtube.com...

originally posted by: jeep3r
Hope you're all ready for another seven minutes of terror prior to a (hopefully) successful landing of NASA's latest Martian SUV (Perseverance Rover)! Following in the footsteps of Curiosity, "Percy" will mark the next chapter of Mars Exploration with lots of new capabilities and feats.

Touchdown on the surface of Mars is planned for Feb 18,2021 at 12:55 p.m. PST. The Live-Feed will be available via the NASA-TV Livestream on YouTube below:

The next couple of hours, days, weeks etc. will be quite exciting (provided that all goes well during the EDL phase, meaning: Entry, Descent and Landing).

All about the science, the instruments aboard the rover and the objectives of NASA's Mars 2020 mission can be found here. Among the many new things this mission introduces, it should be highlighted that Percy will carry a helicopter drone called "Ingenuity", which will be deployed in the rover's vicinity to inspect the surrounding terrain and take aerial shots of the Martian landscape.


OVERVIEW OF INSTRUMENTS

Click on image for larger version


PAST LIFE ON MARS?
Another exciting aspect is that the rover is officially on an astrobiology mission (in contrast to her predecessor "Curiosity"). This means that looking for biosignatures of ancient life on Mars is one of the mission objectives. As many of you know, interesting things have been spotted on Mars during previous missions. However, it was never unambiguous what has been imaged, even if something looked really organic in nature, being quite reminiscent of terrestrial fossils (also see here for a collection of anomalous features found on the Martian surface over the years). I'm linking some other related ATS threads further below for those interested.

So what can we expect from this mission? I, for one, keep my fingers crossed that this will be a successful endeavour, that's for sure. But feel free to chime in with any thoughts you might have regarding Percy's upcoming space adventure!

Exciting times ahead, indeed. So "Godspeed", Perseverance. Have a safe landing and a jolly good time on Mars!

Sources & Links Related to Mars 2020 Mission:
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01. NASA: Mars 2020 Mission / Official Website
02. NASA-TV Live Stream
03. Details on Perseverance/Mars 2020 Mission
04. More information on Ingenuity/Scout Helicopter
05. Perseverance Rover on Twitter
06. Sounds of Mars: Rover to Put Ears on Mars for 1st time
07. A New 7 Minutes of Terror: See the Nail-Biting Mars Landing of NASA's Perseverance Rover

Previous Threads Related to Ancient Life on Mars:
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01. The Case For Past Life On Mars: Revisiting The Fossil Outcrop at Eagle Crater
02. Kirkwood Outcrop on Mars Remains A Mystery: Is This A Glimpse At Past Martian Life?
03. Potential Anomalies on Mars - The Ultimate Collection
04. Martian Blueberries - Revisiting The Odd Spherules of Meridiani Planum

Great post, one of the best I have seen, thank you!

I wonder what they’ve already found that they need this to confirm or deny before announcing. It sounds like they already have something to look at. Maybe something interesting pans out from this.

a reply to: jeep3r