Read on Twitter
3 days until @NASAPersevere lands on Mars!
In celebration, everyday until landing day I'll post an interesting aspect about the mission for you all to learn about, and today is "day three"! So, let's talk the many cameras on the Perseverance rover! (1/12) #scicomm
In celebration, everyday until landing day I'll post an interesting aspect about the mission for you all to learn about, and today is "day three"! So, let's talk the many cameras on the Perseverance rover! (1/12) #scicomm
Perseverance is going to navigate Mars with 23 new and improved cameras on it, 6 more than Curiosity! Let's go through all the category of cameras and what they will be doing for Perseverance. (2/12)
There are cameras (+ a microphone) that will help us document the entry, descent, and landing stages of Perseverance! With them we'll be able to see for the first time what the "7 Minutes of Terror" actually looks like, which will be useful for future spacecraft landings! (3/12)
Mastcam-Z consists of 2 cameras that will be able to take 3D photos of the Martian surface, and are considered the main eyes of the rover. It'll help us understand the terrain around the rover, along with helping us look for signs of water and past life. (4/12)
There are 6 HazCams will help the rover navigate by identifying any hazards in the vicinity of its current position. It's main goal is to provide some autonomy to Perseverance so it can decide for itself if any potential items may be obstacle in its path! (5/12)
2 Navcams will also provide Perseverance autonomy and help engineers at @NASAJPL figure out the best initial path for the rover before letting it "drive blind" on its own. NASA has said that these cameras can see something as small as a golf ball from 25 meters away! (6/12)
CacheCam is a camera that will look more closely at the samples that Perseverance will be taking. It'll take pictures of all samples being analyzed and help scientists keep track of the everything the rover is looking at. (7/12)
SuperCam is the camera that will shoot lasers at rocks to study what their composition is from the resulting vapor! Similar to the ChemCam on Curiosity, it'll take the spectra of these rocks and from that we can learn more about their chemistry! (8/12)
(illustration below)
(illustration below)
PIXL is a camera that will utilize an X-Ray spectrometer and also be able to take super close pictures of rocks on Mars. It'll be so detailed that it can see sediments as small as a grain of salt, according to NASA! Very fitting for its name lol (9/12)
SHERLOC uses a variety of smaller instruments that can help us understand and alterations to different rocks and sediments on Mars, specifically alterations done by water! It'll help us look for organics/biosignatures at a very small scale. (10/12)
Last but not least, we have WATSON which is of course SHERLOC's partner in crime. WATSON helps bridges any gaps for it and also can help take images of the rover itself since it's on the robotic arm, helping scientists and engineers monitor other experiments on the body. (11/12)
That's all of Perseverance's cameras! It'll so exciting to see how all these will provide us with super cool and new information! (12/12)
Are you excited for more laser-shooting on Mars???
Are you excited for more laser-shooting on Mars???
