Written by: Gloria Wang

On February 18th, NASA’s Perseverance rover made its touchdown inside Jezero Crater on Mars. Millions of eyes were glued to the livestream as people waited in anticipation for the rover to land.

As part of the Mars Exploration Program, the Mars Perseverance mission’s main focus is astrobiology ⁠— searching for signs of habitable conditions and ancient microbial life. But for the people watching, the mission isn’t only about collecting rock samples and characterizing environmental conditions. It’s about the “front-row view to what we call ‘the seven minutes of terror’ while landing on Mars,” explains Michael Watkins, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California (Johnson & Hautaluoma 2021).

The video began 230 seconds after the spacecraft entered the upper atmosphere at 12,500 miles per hour. Quickly after, viewers could see the 70.5 foot-wide canopy of the parachute balloon out, slowing the rover’s descent to the ground. After swaying back and forth as it descended, the rover finally came into contact with the ground at 1.61 mph, marking the end of NASA’s first landing clip on Mars. For the first time, people from around the world were able to take a glimpse into the Red Planet itself.

Figure 1

360-degree panorama of Mars
Source: NASA 2021

Just two days after the touchdown, NASA released the first ever audio recording of Mars. While unable to pick up audio during the landing for unknown reasons, the off-the-shelf commercial microphone obtained 60 seconds from the Jezero Crater on February 20th⁠— a Martian breeze overlapping with the mechanical whirring of the rover. The same day, a 360-degree panorama was stitched together from six images taken by the Perseverance rover.

As technology continues to improve, and humanity takes another step forward in science, sharing these historical experiences with the general public can help inspire many individuals, young and old alike. With spaceships and cheap cameras, NASA’s footage brings us all a little bit closer to the universe outside of Earth, and into the realm of space exploration.

References and Sources
Johnson, A. & Hautaluoma, G. (2021). NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Provides Front-Row Seat to Landing, First Audio Recording of Red Planet. Retrieved 23 February 2021, from https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-mars-perseverance-rover-provides-front-row-seat-to-landing-first-audio