First Image Received from Perseverance After Disembarkation
A few minutes ago, it was reported that the landing on the Red Planet was successful! As reported, information about this came to Earth 11 minutes after the start of the landing process. Now the rover begins to test its systems, and a little later - will begin the main mission to study the surface of the Red Planet.
Soon (probably after a few days) we will be able to see the landing of the device in all its glory and even hear thanks to the large number of cameras and microphones that the rover is equipped with. The data will be processed and only then presented to the world.
How accurate the calculations should be for a mission of this complexity is hard to imagine. This mission is probably one of the most difficult ever completed by humanity. The mission of Curiosity is comparable to it, and if it did not go smoothly, then one could strongly doubt the success of the current enterprise.
So far, the details can be followed on the broadcast from the MCC.
As planned, the landing took about seven minutes. During the descent, the rover went through 12 stages:
- Branch of the landing block.
- Entering the atmosphere.
- Maximum block heating.
- Slowdown.
- Opening the parachute.
- Separating the thermal protective shield.
- Radar target tracking.
- Approach to the landing site with simultaneous terrain assessment.
- Separation of the casing.
- Final descent.
- The work of the "Sky Crane".
- Landing.
As far as it was possible to judge from the live broadcast, there were no problems with landing. Needless to say, scientists, engineers, administrators and everyone involved in the Perseverance project did an excellent job. Thanks to their well-coordinated work in the implementation of this monstrously complex project, everything went as expected and even "everyday", as they correctly noted in the comments. So "Seven Minutes of Horror" brought only joy in the end.
As for the images transmitted by the rover, they will appear a little later here . So far there are two images, the first of which is posted in the announcement. This image was taken with a low resolution service camera. Here is the second.
And another important point - in the rover itself, a drone is still resting, which will prove the possibility or, conversely, the impossibility of flying rotary-wing systems in the rarefied atmosphere of Mars. The drone has no scientific instruments, but it will not study anything either. Now its batteries are being charged by the rover battery, and after a while it will be able to detach from the "base" and make its first flight.
