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NASA's Mars Exploration Program
Source images credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS
Stitching and retouching: Andrew Bodrov / 360pano.eu
Sols 207-209: Perseverance Heads to South Séítah
The 4.5-billion-pixel panorama is made up of 906 individual Mastcam-Z images stitched together. The images acquired on Sep. 19, 20 and 21, 2021, the 207th, 208th and 209th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission.
Imaging coverage of the sky has also been digitally smoothed and expanded based on the actual sky color observed as the panorama was being acquired on Mars.
Over the ridge and around the sand ripples to South Séítah we go! After wrapping up science activities at the Citadelle location, including our first successful sampling on the Rochette rock, the Perseverance rover was hungry for more. With our Martian keepsakes in stow, Perseverance celebrated its 200th sol on Mars (September 11th, 2021) with a record breaking 175-meter drive northwest along Artuby ridge, a series of layered outcrops that outline the southern edge of the Séítah thumb and possibly represent a boundary between two geologic units. Perseverance took the wheel for most of the drive, covering 167 meters using the rover’s advanced auto-navigation function (or “Autonav”), a mobility software that allows Perseverance to map terrain and avoid hazards for longer drives.
After collecting some images from the top of Artuby, Perseverance turned right and headed off the ridge as we dipped our wheels into the Séítah region. Thanks to some awesome scouting by the Ingenuity helicopter during flight 12 on Sol 174 (August 16th, 2021), the science team was able to get a preview of the rocks ahead and identify potential targets of interest for sampling. One rock that caught our eye was a thinly-layered outcrop called Bastide. The thin layers of Bastide suggest this rock may be sedimentary and deposited by water as a result of Jezero lake activity over 3 billion years ago, but further investigation is needed to confirm its origin. We got our first up close look at Bastide as we arrived at the outcrop on sol 204 (September 15th, 2021) after a series of drives. Since arriving, we have abraded the rock to reveal a fresh surface and better investigate the composition using our sophisticated suite of science instruments.
Some of our major science questions as we explore South Séítah are: How do these rocks relate to those previously explored in the “Crater Floored Fractured Rough” (“CF-Fr”) and do they represent a geologically distinct origin and time in Jezero’s history? Bastide may hold the answers to these questions and potentially provide a key sample in our cache that will one day be returned to Earth and studied by future scientists. But with Mars solar conjunction set to begin in early October, we will likely have to wait a little longer to sample our next Martian rock. In the meantime, we will have plenty of data to ponder and finalize a target for sampling once Mars comes back into view!
Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Other panoramas of Mars by Perseverance rover: http://www.360cities.net/sets/perseverance-mars
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The planet Earth has proven to be too limiting for our awesome community of panorama photographers. We're getting an increasing number of submissions that depict locations either not on Earth (like Mars, the Moon, and Outer Space in general) or do not realistically represent a geographic location on Earth (either because they have too many special effects or are computer generated) and hence don't strictly qualify for our Panoramic World project.But many of these panoramas are extremely beautiful or popular of both.So, in order to accommodate our esteemed photographers and the huge audience that they attract to 360Cities with their panoramas, we've created a new section (we call it an "area") called "Out of this World" for panoramas like these.Don't let the fact that these panoramas are being placed at the Earth's South Pole fool you - we had to put them somewhere in order not to interfere with our Panoramic World.Welcome aboard on a journey "Out of this World".
