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Movie of Perseverance’s descent and landing

Cool movie time! The science team for Perseverance today released movie footage obtained by the rover as it descended and landed on Mars in Jezero Crater. That video is embedded below.

If you compare what this movie sees with the orbital images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) that I posted earlier today, you can recognize the features in the crater and anticipate exactly where the rover is going to land.

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

7 comments

  • Jay

    That is a very cool video. I noticed the washboard features across the terrain at 1m58s. Such detail during descent and I did not mind the wobbling!

  • t-dub

    Amazing to watch! Interesting that when the parachute deployed that they lost a radome protecting an antenna but since it was on the descent stage it doesn’t really matter as it is crashed on the surface now anyways. It was also interesting to see that one spring that came loose on the heat shield. The microphone sounds of the Martian wind were cool, can’t wait to hear more sounds later of equipment on the rover working.

  • Sayomara

    Honestly not sure why it bothers me but it seems like they should wait to start clapping until they have touch down. All the other clapping seems really empty could just be replaced with finger snaps…

    In any case cool video its honestly insane we can make this happen

  • Tim

    Excellent video. You may enjoy the shot-by-shot commentary about this video at about 16 minutes into this live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYQwuYZbA6o

  • wayne

    a repeat from me–good stuff on the background of this video presentation

    Scott Manley
    Perseverance Begins Life On Mars
    2-20-21
    https://youtu.be/zvvzvXb2Awc?t=326

    –> “Table 4: EDLCAM properties and estimated operating modes”

  • wayne

    So, who can tell me if all those fake “masks” the science team wears, were manufactured in china?

  • Sayomara noted: “. . . just be replaced with finger snaps…”

    From a Thelonious Monk jazz festival appearance: “Hep cats know to snap on the upbeat. Don’t snap on the downbeat; it’s considered aggressive.”

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