Perseverance Landing Footage: Parachute to Sky Crane Touchdown

NASA released first-of-its-kind footage of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars, covering the final minutes of the descent up to the moment the rover touched down on the surface. The rover is covered with cameras, seven of them dedicated to recording the landing. More than 30GB of information had been collected from the rover, along with 23,000 images taken as the vehicle descended.

Parachute and heat shield

Mission control confirmed that the parachute had deployed and that significant deceleration was under way. Velocity at that point was 450 meters per second at an altitude of about 12 kilometers. Once the vehicle slowed to subsonic speeds, the heat shield separated. This allowed both the radar and the cameras to get their first look at the surface. Velocity was then 145 meters per second at about 10 kilometers.

Radar lock and navigation

At 7.4 kilometers the radar had lock on the ground, with velocity about 100 meters per second. At 6.6 kilometers the rover was still descending on the parachute, approaching the initialization of terrain relative navigation and the priming of the landing engines. At 4.2 kilometers the speed was about 90 meters per second. Controllers then confirmed that the lander vision system had produced a valid solution and that terrain relative navigation was nominal.

Back shell and divert

At 83 meters per second and about 2.6 kilometers from the surface, the back shell separated. The vehicle then performed the divert maneuver at about 75 meters per second and roughly a kilometer altitude. Terrain relative navigation was completed at about 30 meters per second and 300 meters above the surface.

Sky crane and touchdown

The constant velocity phase began, and the sky crane maneuver started about 20 meters off the surface. Signals were received from MRO, and touchdown was confirmed with Perseverance on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking signs of past life.