ExoMars Orbiter Captures Perseverance at Landing Site in Mars’ Jezero Crater

ExoMars Orbiter Images Perseverance Landing Site

The ESA-Roscosmos Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, along with its parachute and back shell, heat shield, and descent stage, in the Jezero Crater region of Mars. The images were captured with the orbiter’s CaSSIS camera on February 23, 2021. The components are seen as dark or bright pixels. In this image, the colors have been stretched to emphasize the compositional diversity of the surface. Credit: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS; acknowledgement P. Grindrod

The ESA-Roscosmos Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, along with its parachute, heat shield, and descent stage, in the Jezero Crater region of Mars.

The images were captured with the orbiter’s CaSSIS camera on February 23, 2021. The components are seen as dark or bright pixels in the images. 

The rover landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, and was first identified in this image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:

Perseverance and Mars 2020 Spacecraft Components on Surface

This first image of NASA’s Perseverance Rover on the surface of Mars from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows the many parts of the Mars 2020 mission landing system that got the rover safely on the ground. The image was taken on February 19, 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Perseverance will explore the Jezero Crater region of Mars, which is thought to have once hosted a lake, searching for signs of past microbial life. It will collect and cache samples of Martian rocks and soil for subsequent missions to collect and return to Earth as part of the joint ESA-NASA Mars Sample Return campaign.

ExoMars Orbiter Images Perseverance Landing Site Labeled

ExoMars orbiter images Perseverance landing site. In this image, the colors have been adjusted to resemble the typical red color of Mars, as would be seen by a human observer. Credit: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS; acknowledgment A. Valantinas

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter provided significant data relay services around the landing of Perseverance, including supporting the return of the videos and imagery taken by the mission’s onboard cameras during the descent of the rover to the surface of Mars. The orbiter will continue to provide data relay support between Earth and Mars for NASA’s surface missions, and for the next ExoMars mission, which will see the European Rosalind Franklin rover and Russian Kazachok surface platform arrive at the Red Planet in 2023. At the same time, the Trace Gas Orbiter continues its own science mission, focusing on analyzing the planet’s atmosphere with a special emphasis on searching for gases that may be linked to active geological or biological processes.

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