A Landing Site on Mars

The day after the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this picture of the landing site. The image shows the location of the Mars 2020 mission descent stage, heat shield, and parachute and back shell that delivered Perseverance to the surface of Mars as well as the rover itself on the floor of Jezero Crater. Each the inset box spans is about 200 m across. Perseverance is located at the center of the pattern created by rocket exhaust from the the descent stage while it hovered and lowered the rover to the surface. After lowering the rover, the descent stage itself flew off, crashing a safe distance from the rover. After their separation in the landing sequence, the heat shield, parachute, and back shell fell to their own impact sites.

Image Credit: NASA

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