The landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars is one of the most exciting events to happen for space enthusiasts in quite a while. The Perseverance rover will be searching for ancient life, collecting terrain samples and collecting important data about Mars’ geology and climate.
The rover will be landing in a place with high potential for finding signs of past microbial life – the Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide crater that was a possible oasis in its distant past. According to NASA, between 3-4 billion years ago a river there flowed into a body of water the size of Lake Tahoe. This deposited sediments packed with carbonite minerals and clay. The Perseverance science team believes this ancient river delta could have collected and preserved organic molecules and other signs of microbial life.
While the rover’s mission is certainly fascinating, the technology that Perseverance is carrying is exciting in its own right as well. In total, the Perseverance rover is carrying 23 cameras. Nine of these are engineering cameras, seven are science cameras and seven are entry, descent and landing cameras.
We’ve broken down what each of these cameras are designed to do below, but make sure to check out the full NASA blog for more detail.
(Image credit: NASA)
Mars rover: Descent imaging cameras
The Mars Curiosity rover was equipped with a Mars Descent Imager camera that recorded full-color video of Curiosity’s journey through the atmosphere and down to the surface, giving the NASA science team a glimpse of the landing. However, for the Mars Perseverance rover, the engineering team has added several cameras and a microphone to document the entry, descent and landing in even greater detail.
This tech means that Perseverance was able to capture full-color video throughout the vehicle’s final descent to the surface (this hasn’t been released yet, as it’s presumably still be processed).
According to the NASA blog, these cameras include:
• Parachute “up look” cameras: Mounted on the backshell, looking upward at parachute deployment and inflation.
• Descent-stage “down look”camera: Mounted on the descent, looking downward at the rover as it is lowered during the skycrane maneuver.
• Rover “up look” camera: Mounted on the deck of the rover, looking upward at the descent stage during the skycrane maneuver and descent stage separation.
• Rover “down look” camera: Mounted beneath the rover, looking downward at the surface during landing.
This shows where the descent imaging cameras were placed (Image credit: NASA)
Mars rover: Engineering cameras
“Enhanced” engineering cameras for driving
The Mars Perseverance rover has “enhanced” engineering cameras to help the human operators on Earth drive the rover more precisely. These cameras are also designed to better target the movements of the arm, drill and other tools that get close to their targets.
“A much wider field-of-view gives the cameras a much better view of the rover itself. This is important for checking on the health of various rover parts and measuring changes in the amount of dust and sand that may accumulate on rover surfaces. The new cameras can also take pictures while the rover is moving.”
Interestingly, NASA has given some technical specifications for these engineering cameras:
Weight: Less than 425 grams (less than a pound) Image size: 5,120 x 3,840 pixels Image resolution: 20 megapixels
Hazard avoidance cameras (HazCams)
Perseverance carries six newly developed Hazard Detection Cameras to help the rover avoid hazards to the front and back pathways. These could include large rocks, trenches or sand dunes. Engineers will also be using the front HazCams when using the robotic arms to take measurements, photos and collect rocks and soil samples.
Navigation cameras (NavCams)
Designed to aid in autonomous navigation for Perseverance, the two color stereo navigation cameras help the rover make its own navigation decisions without consulting controllers on Earth. These two cameras can see an object as small as a golf ball from 82 feet (25 meters) away.
CacheCam
The CacheCam is a single cameras that’s positioned on the rover’s underbelly at the top of the sample cache. It’s designed to see down the top of the sample tube and take microscopic pictures of the top of the sample material before the tube is sealed. This will help scientists keep a record of the entire process as each sample is collected.
The CacheCam will take microscopic pictures of samples from Mars (Image credit: NASA)
Mars rover: Science cameras
There are five types of science cameras on the Mars Perseverance rover – each designed to perform a different function. We’ve given a brief overview of their functions below, but make sure to check out the NASA blog for more detail.
Mastcam-Z
Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras that takes color images and video, three-dimensional stereo images and features a powerful zoom lens.
SuperCam
The SuperCam camera is able to fire a laser at mineral targets that are beyond the reach of the rover’s robotic arm. It will then analyze the vaporized rock to reveal its elemental composition.
PIXL
The PIXL camera uses X-ray fluorescence to identify chemical elements in target spots as small as a grain of salt.
SHERLOC Context Imager
The main tools featured with the SHERLOC Context Imager are spectrometers and a laser. However, it also has an integrated “context” macro camera to take extreme close-ups of the areas that are studied.
WATSON
The Watson camera is located at the “hand” or turret at the end of Perseverance’s robotic arm. Its designed to capture the images that bridge the scale from the detailed images and maps that SHERLOC collects of Martian minerals and organics to the broader scales that SuperCam and Mastcam-Z observe from the mast.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
