The rover also returned some beautiful postcards from its landing site.
The first image shared during a NASA press conference on Friday was “exciting” for the team when it received it. It shows the rover approaching the Martian surface during entry, descent and landing. A camera in the spacecraft’s descent stage captured the perspective, something that was not possible in previous missions.
Small plumes of dust can be seen rising from the Martian surface, agitated by the engines that landed the spacecraft when it was just 2.5 meters above the surface.
“The team is delighted with enthusiasm and joy at having successfully landed another rover on the surface of Mars,” said Adam Steltzner, the rover’s chief engineer. “When we make these investments, we do them for humanity, and we do them as a gesture of our humanity.”
Steltzner cited iconic images from the Apollo mission space, such as Buzz Aldrin on the moon’s surface, Voyager’s first Saturn image and the inspiring “Pillars of Creation” photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.
“We can only hope, in our efforts to design spaceships and explore our solar system, that we can contribute yet another iconic image to this collection, and I am happy to say that I am hopeful that today we can do that.”
While the first images returned by the rover on Thursday night were glimpses in black and white showing that it landed safely on Mars, the color images made available on Friday show the characteristic red color of the Martian surface.
“An open horizon, with so much to explore. I can’t wait to start,” tweeted the Perseverance account.
The rocks are also seen scattered over the flat surface of the landing site in the Jezero crater, but they are small when compared to the large wheels of the space vehicle.
Another tweet with the image said, “I love rocks. Look at them next to my wheel. Are they volcanic or sedimentary? What story do they tell? I can’t wait to find out.”
The HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which flew over the landing site as the Perseverance approached to land, captured an incredible view when the spacecraft’s parachutes opened.
“If you look down at the small circle, this was our eventual landing point,” said Aaron Stehura, deputy leader of the entry, descent and landing phase. “You can see that it is close to the river delta that we are talking about.”
Perseverance landed about 1.2 miles away from the river delta inside the Jezero crater, which hosted a lake 3.9 billion years ago. The rover will spend the next two years investigating the crater and the delta for evidence of ancient life that may have existed when Mars was a more habitable place.