Perseverance: How to Land on Mars
Explanation:
Slung beneath its rocket powered descent stage
Perseverance
hangs
only a few meters above the martian surface, captured here moments
before its February 18 touchdown on the Red Planet.
The
breath-taking view followed an
intense seven minute
trip from the top of the martian atmosphere.
Part of a high resolution video, the picture was
taken from the descent stage itself during the final
skycrane
landing
maneuver.
Three taut mechanical cables about 7 meters long are
visible lowering Perseverance, along
with an electrical umbilical connection feeding signals
(like this image), to a computer on board the car-sized rover.
Below Perseverance streamers of martian dust are kicked-up from the
surface by the descent rocket engines.
Immediately
after
touchdown,
the cables were released allowing the descent stage to fly to
a safe distance before exhausting its fuel as planned.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
