The View from Mars

Three days into its mission, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover captured a 360-degree panoramic view of its surroundings, in Jezero Crater – presumed to be the site of an ancient lake system. The panorama is comprised of 142 separate images – showing the crater’s rim at a distance, and magnified rocks up close – recorded by the rover’s Mastcam-Z cameras.

Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras capable of capturing zoomable stereoscopic images – and video – at a range of focal lengths. These images provide unprecedented views of the Martian landscape to human eyes.

Operating Mastcam-Z from Earth, in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, is a dedicated team from Arizona State University in Tempe.

The optomechanical systems of Mastcam-Z were engineered and built by Motiv Space Systems, in partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. JPL is supported by NASA and managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Motiv and JPL also collaborated on the robotic arm attached to Perseverance.

What else will Mastcam-Z reveal about the Martian landscape? What can the Mars 2020 mission teach scientists and engineers about future interplanetary exploration? Motiv remains at the forefront of robotic engineering, curious and persevering.

Learn more about how Motiv helped deliver the Mastcam-Z on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

Photography Credit

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU