This is the first 360-degree panorama taken by Mastcam-Z, a zoomable pair of cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. The panorama was stitched together on Earth from 142 individual images taken on Sol 3, the third Martian day of the mission (Feb. 21, 2021). The MMRTG that provides electric power to Perseverance and its instrument is visible in the back of the rover. Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS.
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, named Perseverance, launched on July 30, 2020, and landed successfully in Jezero Crater on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. It is the second NASA mission to be powered by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG).
Perseverance is designed to seek evidence of past microbial life on Mars, such as rocks that formed in the presence of water and could preserve evidence of organic chemicals, the building blocks of life. The rover also will test technology related to future human exploration of Mars, and will gather samples of Mars that could be brought back to Earth by a future mission. It is the fifth rover sent to Mars by the United States, and builds upon the design heritage and continuing scientific discoveries of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.