- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
- Messages
- 26,290
- Reaction score
- 16,771
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/martian-rover-sends-back-overwhelming-video-audio-red-planet (subscription)
Just four Martian days after touching down on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent back its first video of its new home: a 1-minute arabesque of color and motion captured from four on-board cameras, as the car-size rover dangles from its rocket-propelled descent vehicle, a red-and-white parachute snaps into place, and the pitted surface of Mars comes slowly into view, dark canyons giving way to ripples of dust that look like giant, rust-colored dunes (see video, above).
But perhaps even more thrilling, an unexpected gift arrived along with the video and the thousands of new images that were downloaded over the weekend: the first sound recording taken from the surface of Mars. The recording, captured 1 day after landing by an on-board microphone, features the whine of the rover, followed by a gust of Martian wind drumming gently against the microphone. Hearing that sound was “overwhelming,” said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for the mission’s entry, descent, and landing cameras, at a NASA event announcing the new video and images. “We’re just beginning to do amazing things on the surface of Mars.”
That feeling lasted all weekend as the images and video rolled in, said Michael Watkins, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “These are really amazing videos. We all binge-watched them over the weekend, if you can call a 1-minute video binge-watching. But we watched it many, many times, and it’s just fantastic.”
================================================================
Within the next few decades Mars will become a strategic base for both us & the Chinese. That's why we sent this probe.
Just four Martian days after touching down on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent back its first video of its new home: a 1-minute arabesque of color and motion captured from four on-board cameras, as the car-size rover dangles from its rocket-propelled descent vehicle, a red-and-white parachute snaps into place, and the pitted surface of Mars comes slowly into view, dark canyons giving way to ripples of dust that look like giant, rust-colored dunes (see video, above).
But perhaps even more thrilling, an unexpected gift arrived along with the video and the thousands of new images that were downloaded over the weekend: the first sound recording taken from the surface of Mars. The recording, captured 1 day after landing by an on-board microphone, features the whine of the rover, followed by a gust of Martian wind drumming gently against the microphone. Hearing that sound was “overwhelming,” said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for the mission’s entry, descent, and landing cameras, at a NASA event announcing the new video and images. “We’re just beginning to do amazing things on the surface of Mars.”
That feeling lasted all weekend as the images and video rolled in, said Michael Watkins, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “These are really amazing videos. We all binge-watched them over the weekend, if you can call a 1-minute video binge-watching. But we watched it many, many times, and it’s just fantastic.”
================================================================
Within the next few decades Mars will become a strategic base for both us & the Chinese. That's why we sent this probe.