If you’re curious about what it’s like to stand on Mars right where NASA’s Perseverance rover landed, the spacecraft shared a 360-degree view you can enjoy right here on Earth.
In the panorama shared on YouTube on Monday, you can click and drag to see Mars from the rover’s perspective inside Jezero Crater, or use a VR headset for an even more immersive experience.
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The stunning view was stitched together from images taken by Perseverance’s two navigation cameras, located on its mast’s “head.” They show pebbles dotting the flat, dusty ground, far-off hills in the distance, and the hazy horizon. It’s clear that this vista was captured well after the rover’s landing, which kicked up quite a bit of dust as it settled on the surface.
There are 19 cameras on the rover. The navigation cams are located next to the rover’s Mastcam Z cameras, which will be able to capture and send back even higher quality imagery.
The first black and white pictures shared after Persy landed on Mars came from the rover’s hazard cameras, which are low on the its body and not quite as beautiful as the newer pictures coming in.
While the Martian panorama is the real highlight here, we can’t ignore the look at the rover itself, giving us a partial selfie from over 100 million miles away. Maybe we’ll get a fuller selfie from Perseverance in the future just like the Curiosity rover captured in 2018.