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All systems on Perseverance so far check out good

The Perseverance science team reported this past weekend that all systems on the rover have so far reported back and are operating as expected, including the test helicopter Ingenuity.

Some more images were sent back, all visible at the Perseverance raw image website. The most spectacular new image of Perseverance released however was one taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and posted below.

Oblique view showing Perseverance descending to Jezero Crater on parachute
Click for full image.

Perseverance's location in Jezero Crater

Detailed view of landing site

The photo above is reduced to post here, and gives us an oblique view of Jezero Crater. The inset shows the parachute with the rover/Sky Crane hanging from it. From the image’s caption:

[MRO] was approximately 700 kilometers (435 miles) from Perseverance at the time of the image and traveling at about 3 kilometers per second (6,750 mph). The extreme distance and high speeds of the two spacecraft were challenging conditions that required precise timing and for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to both pitch upward and roll hard to the left so that Perseverance was viewable by [MRO] at just the right moment.

I have added a red dot to show the spot where the rover finally landed. Directly to the west of that dot is the large delta feature that made Jezero Crater the prime landing spot. The two overhead MRO images to the right will help my readers pick out the features in the oblique view above.

The rover’s future route to get up onto that delta will skirt its southern edge and aim for a long ramp that can be seen due south of the large crater on the delta. The distance to that ramp is several miles, so don’t expect Perseverance to reach it for at least three to four years.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

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