posted 02-18-2021 10:56 AM               

NASA photo (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Perseverance flight director Magdy Bareh moves the final marble from the Perseverance Mars rover Earth launch jar to the Mars landing in a conference room of the Mission Support Area (MSA) Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The Perseverance Mars rover team has been moving one marble a day since launch from jar to jar.

posted 02-18-2021 01:14 PM               

Watch an epic journey unfold on Thursday, Feb. 18 as our Perseverance rover lands on Mars. Watch here for a 360-degree engineer's-eye-view from inside Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with picture-in-picture commentary.

posted 02-18-2021 01:15 PM               

Watch an epic journey unfold on Thursday, Feb. 18 as our Perseverance rover lands on Mars. To reach the surface of the Red Planet, the rover has to survive the harrowing final phase known as Entry, Descent, and Landing.

posted 02-18-2021 03:25 PM               

While watching a national TV coverage of the final minutes before Perseverance made its soft landing, my wife took an avid interest in the mission and started to ask me questions about it, which is something that she doesn't do too often as I'm the big space fan in the family.

I told Theresa how far NASA's planetary space efforts have greatly improved since the primitive days of Viking and was showing her some Mars 2020 postal covers for launch along with some of my earlier Mars exploration memorabilia. I am proud to report that she was genuinely fascinated by today's remarkable accomplishments.

posted 02-18-2021 04:26 PM               

Now that our Perseverance Mars Rover successfully landed on the Red Planet after a nearly seven-month journey, mission experts will talk about the robotic scientist’s touchdown in the most challenging terrain on Mars ever targeted.

posted 02-18-2021 05:51 PM               

I read today about all of the improvements to the landing systems and techniques that made this incredibly precise bullseye touchdown possible. Just astounding. And we still have the first flight of an aircraft from Earth on another planet to go!

Of course, it’s also exciting that my family’s names all landed on Mars today...and we celebrated with some Mars donuts. I think this should become a tradition!

posted 02-19-2021 12:04 PM               

Now that our mighty Perseverance Mars rover has landed – what’s next? Hear from mission experts who will provide a status update on the rover and what needs to be done before the science mission kicks into full gear.

posted 02-19-2021 12:10 PM               

This shot from a camera on my "jetpack" captures me in midair, just before my wheels touched down.

Perseverance's descent as captured by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:

First color photo from a forward facing hazard camera (hazcam) after the protective cover has been removed (not yet color corrected):

Close-up of one of Perseverance's wheels and what is initially thought to be either volcanic or sedimentary rocks.

posted 02-22-2021 09:45 AM               

You WANT to take time and attend this press conference! Trust me — you will not regret it!

posted 02-22-2021 01:34 PM               

NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance mission captured thrilling footage of its rover landing in Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The real footage in this video was captured by several cameras that are part of the rover's entry, descent, and landing suite.

The views include a camera looking down from the spacecraft's descent stage (a kind of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its landing site), a camera on the rover looking up at the descent stage, a camera on the top of the aeroshell (a capsule protecting the rover) looking up at that parachute, and a camera on the bottom of the rover looking down at the Martian surface.

The audio embedded in the video comes from the mission control call-outs during entry, descent, and landing.

A microphone attached to the rover did not collect usable data during the descent, but the device survived the landing and obtained sounds from Jezero Crater on Feb. 20.

About 10 seconds into the 60-second recording, a Martian breeze is audible for a few seconds, as are mechanical sounds of the rover operating on the surface.

posted 02-23-2021 08:55 AM               

In addition to enabling incredible science, we hope our efforts and our engineering can inspire others. Sometimes we leave messages that are work for others to find for that purpose. So we invite you all to give it a shot and show your work.

It looks like the internet has cracked the code in something like 6 hours! Oh internet is there anything you can't do? For those who just want to know:

posted 02-23-2021 05:12 PM               

Now that it's out, here is a photo of the family portrait just before it was bolted on! (For those wondering if it was biologically clean, yes... yes it was!)

posted 02-24-2021 04:11 PM               

NASA's Perseverance Rover Gives High-Definition Panoramic View of Landing Site

NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover got its first high-definition look around its new home in Jezero Crater on Feb. 21, after rotating its mast, or "head," 360 degrees, allowing the rover's Mastcam-Z instrument to capture its first panorama after touching down on the Red Planet on Feb 18. It was the rover's second panorama ever, as the rover's Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, also located on the mast, captured a 360-degree view on Feb. 20.

Above: This is the first 360-degree panorama taken by Mastcam-Z, a zoomable pair of cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. The panorama was stitched together on Earth from 142 individual images taken on Sol 3, the third Martian day of the mission (Feb. 21, 2021). (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU)

Mastcam-Z is a dual-camera system equipped with a zoom function, allowing the cameras to zoom in, focus, and take high-definition video, as well as panoramic color and 3D images of the Martian surface. With this capability, the robotic astrobiologist can provide a detailed examination of both close and distant objects.

The cameras will help scientists assess the geologic history and atmospheric conditions of Jezero Crater and will assist in identifying rocks and sediment worthy of a closer look by the rover's other instruments. The cameras also will help the mission team determine which rocks the rover should sample and collect for eventual return to Earth in the future.

Stitched together from 142 images, the newly released panorama reveals the crater rim and cliff face of an ancient river delta in the distance. The camera system can reveal details as small as 0.1 to 0.2 inches (3 to 5 millimeters) across near the rover and 6.5 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) across in the distant slopes along the horizon.

The detailed composite image shows a Martian surface that appears similar to images captured by previous NASA rover missions.

"We're nestled right in a sweet spot, where you can see different features similar in many ways to features found by Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity at their landing sites," said Jim Bell of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, the instrument's principal investigator. ASU leads operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.

The camera team will discuss the new panorama during a question and answer session at 4 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 25, which will air live on NASA Television. Speakers include:

• Jim Bell of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, the instrument's principal investigator
  
• Elsa Jensen of Malin Space Science Systems, who leads the uplink operations team that sends commands to Mastcam-Z
  
• Kjartan Kinch of the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen, who led the design, construction, and testing of Mastcam-Z's color calibration targets, which are used to tune the instrument's settings

Mastcam-Z's design is an evolution of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover's Mastcam instrument, which has two cameras of fixed focal length rather than zoomable cameras. The two cameras on Perseverance's Mastcam-Z dual cameras are mounted on the rover's mast at eye level for a person 6 feet, 6 inches (2 meters) tall. They sit 9.5 inches (24.1 centimeters) apart to provide stereo vision and can produce color images with a quality similar to that of a consumer digital HD camera.

The Mastcam-Z team includes dozens of scientists, engineers, operations specialists, managers, and students from a variety of institutions. In addition, the team includes deputy principal investigator Justin Maki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

posted 03-04-2021 03:12 PM               

It is astounding what you did. You should not underestimate it. You did it the most American way — you believed in science, you believed in hard work and you believed there wasn't a darn thing you couldn't do if you put your minds together.

posted 03-05-2021 03:01 PM               

The spot where Perseverance began its journey on Mars now bears the name "Octavia E. Butler Landing." Groundbreaking author Octavia E. Butler is a perfect fit for this mission, as her main characters embody overcoming challenges.

She was the author of several award-winning novels including "Parable of the Sower" (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and "Parable of the Talents" (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.

posted 03-05-2021 03:04 PM               

Now that the Perseverance Mars rover is on the Red Planet, mission controllers have made substantial progress as they prepare for the robotic astrobiologist to hit the unpaved road ahead. Join us as team members discuss a series of “firsts” achieved so far, as well as a look at those to come.

posted 03-05-2021 03:34 PM               

This image was taken during the first drive of NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars on March 4, 2021. Perseverance landed on Feb. 18, 2021, and the team has been spending the weeks since landing checking out the rover to prepare for surface operations. This image was taken by the rover's Navigation Cameras.

Taken Feb. 22, 2021, this image from the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA's Perseverance rover shows the first target for analysis by the rover's SuperCam instrument.

The target rock is approximately 29 inches (73 centimeters) across its longest axis. On the left side of the image, rocks characterized by holes partially filled with dark sands contrast with the lighter-toned, smoother texture of the rock on the right. The finer-grained Martian soil can also be seen surrounding the rocks, some of which was disturbed by the Mars 2020 mission descent stage engine plumes. The image colors portray an estimate of the natural color of each scene, or approximately what the scene would look like if we viewed it with human eyes.

From its landing site, "Octavia E. Butler Landing," NASA's Perseverance rover can see a remnant of a fan-shaped deposit of sediments known as a delta with its Mastcam-Z instrument. Scientists believe this delta is what remains of the confluence between an ancient river and a lake at Mars' Jezero Crater. The delta remnant is the raised area of dark brown rock in the middle ground this image acquired on Feb. 22, 2021.

An annotated version of the image shows a scale bar for 30 feet (10 meters). The delta remnant is about 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometers) to the west of the Perseverance landing site. The visible portion of the remnant is about 660 feet (200 meters) across. In the foreground is a boulder about 6 feet (2 meters) across that is about 425 feet (130 meters) from the rover. The image colors portray an estimate of the natural color of each scene, or approximately what the scene would look like if we viewed it with human eyes.

posted 03-11-2021 07:31 PM               

NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Mission Honors Navajo Language

Working with the Navajo Nation, the rover team has named features on Mars with words from the Navajo language.

The first scientific focus of NASA's Perseverance rover is a rock named "Máaz" – the Navajo word for "Mars." The rover's team, in collaboration with the Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President, has been naming features of scientific interest with words in the Navajo language.

Above: Canyon de Chelly National Monument ("Tséyi'" in Navajo) in Arizona is located on Navajo Nation land. Members of NASA's Perseverance rover team, in collaboration with the Navajo Nation, has been naming features of scientific interest with words in the Navajo language.

Surface missions assign nicknames to landmarks to provide the mission's team members, which number in the thousands, a common way to refer to rocks, soils, and other geologic features of interest. Previous rover teams have named features after regions of geologic interest on Earth as well as people and places related to expeditions. Although the International Astronomical Union designates official names for planetary features, these informal names are used as reference points by the team.

Before launch, Perseverance's team divided the Jezero Crater landing site into a grid of quadrangles, or "quads," that are roughly 1 square mile (1.5 square kilometers) in size. The team decided to name these quads after national parks and preserves on Earth with similar geology. Perseverance touched down in the quad named for Arizona's Canyon de Chelly National Monument (Tséyi' in Navajo), in the heart of the Navajo Nation. The team's plan was to compile a list of names inspired by each quad's national park that could be used to name features observed by Perseverance. Mission scientists worked with a Navajo (or Diné) engineer on the team, Aaron Yazzie of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, to seek the Navajo Nation's permission and collaboration in naming new features on Mars.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, Vice President Myron Lizer, and their advisors made a list of words in the Navajo language available to the rover's team. Some terms were inspired by the terrain imaged by Perseverance at its landing site. For example, one suggestion was "tséwózí bee hazhmeezh," or "rolling rows of pebbles, like waves." Yazzie added suggestions like "strength" ("bidziil") and "respect" ("hoł nilį́") to the list. Perseverance itself was translated to "Ha'ahóni."

"The partnership that the Nez-Lizer Administration has built with NASA will help to revitalize our Navajo language," said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez. "We hope that having our language used in the Perseverance mission will inspire more of our young Navajo people to understand the importance and the significance of learning our language. Our words were used to help win World War II, and now we are helping to navigate and learn more about the planet Mars."

The Perseverance team has a list of 50 names to start with. The team will work with the Navajo Nation on more names in the future as the rover continues to explore.

Above: This rock, called "Máaz" (the Navajo word for "Mars"), is the first feature of scientific interest to be studied by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover.

"This fateful landing on Mars has created a special opportunity to inspire Navajo youth not just through amazing scientific and engineering feats, but also through the inclusion of our language in such a meaningful way," Yazzie said.

However, for Perseverance to recognize landmarks that have been labeled in Navajo, it has to be "taught" the language. The accent marks used in the English alphabet to convey the unique intonation of the Navajo language cannot be read by the computer languages Perseverance uses. Yazzie noted that while they work hard to come up with translations that best resemble Navajo spellings, the team will use English letters without special characters or punctuation to represent Navajo words.

"We are very proud of one of our very own, Aaron Yazzie, who is playing a vital role in NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Mission," President Nez said. "We are excited for the NASA team and for Aaron and we see him as being a great role model who will inspire more interest in the STEM fields of study and hopefully inspire more of our young people to pursue STEM careers to make even greater impacts and contributions just as Aaron is doing. As the mission continues, we offer our prayers for continued success."

Scientists on the team have embraced the opportunity to learn Navajo words and their meaning, said Perseverance Deputy Project Scientist Katie Stack Morgan of JPL. "This partnership is encouraging the rover's science team to be more thoughtful about the names being considered for features on Mars – what they mean both geologically and to people on Earth," Stack Morgan said.

posted 03-12-2021 04:55 PM               

The Queen was presented with a set of Perseverance face masks at the end of the session, sent from NASA HQ to Windsor Castle.

Professor Smith asked that one of the masks be gifted to The Duke of Edinburgh, given His Royal Highness' interest in space exploration.

posted 03-17-2021 05:18 PM               

As the Perseverance rover began to make tracks on the surface of Mars, a sensitive microphone it carries scored a first: the bangs, pings, and rattles of the robot's six wheels as they rolled over Martian terrain.

Listening to the extended version did earn some odd looks from passing co-workers, and I channeled Click-N-Clack (the Tappet Brothers) to diagnose that funny noise:

Percy: "You know, it's 'eek-eek-eek-eek' when I drive over Martian rocks, and the 'unk-unk-unk' when I try to turn or hit the brakes on a dune." (11:15)

posted 04-07-2021 05:17 PM               

Say Cheese on Mars: Perseverance's Selfie With Ingenuity

NASA's newest Mars rover used a camera on the end of its robotic arm to snap this shot of itself with the Ingenuity helicopter nearby.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 13 feet (4 meters) away in this image from April 6, 2021, the 46th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Perseverance captured the image using a camera called WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering), part of the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument, located at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

Perseverance's selfie with Ingenuity was stitched together from 62 individual images taken while the rover was looking at the helicopter, then again while it was looking at the WATSON camera. Videos explaining how NASA's Perseverance and Curiosity rovers take their selfies can be found here.

posted 08-06-2021 05:46 PM               

Sampling Mars is one of my most complicated tasks. Early pics and data show a successful drill hole, but no sample in the tube — something we've never seen in testing on Earth. Mars keeps surprising us. We're working through this new challenge. More to come.

posted 08-11-2021 05:01 PM               

Update on my first sampling attempt: looks like the rock I drilled was too crumbly and broke into small fragments/powder, instead of producing an intact core. Pushing ahead to find my next target, expected to be more like rocks we cored on Earth.