NASA's Perseverance Rover captured this image of the surrounding area on the Jezero Crater floor on Oct. 22, 2021 using one of its navigation cameras. Three days later, the image was posted on Twitter by members of the mission team.
NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover has emerged from its first "solar combination" blackout, and is now back at work on the Red Planet. It even called home with its first Mars photos since its reawakening.
Perseverance, a Mars spacecraft about the size of a car, and the other Mars spacecraft had teeter for two weeks after the Red Planet moved behind Earth's sun. This alignment, also known as solar conjunction, is when our star can corrupt commands sent to Mars from Earth. NASA and other space agencies aren't taking this chance.
For mission controls worldwide, Mars is now visible, including for Perseverance's, which is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Southern California. The six-wheeled robot is now awake and has resumed exploring Jezero Crater. This hole, which measures 28 miles (45 km) in diameter, was once home to a lake and a river delta billions years ago.
Related: Where can I find the most recent Mars photos taken by NASA's Perseverance Rover?
Another photo was taken by Perseverances navigation camera on Oct. 22, 2021. The image was posted by mission team members on Twitter on October 25, 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
"Im back at work, parked between these beautiful outcrops. "Been doing some imaging and weather studies, chemistry experiments, and getting a new software update too," mission team members posted via Perseverance’s official Twitter account on Monday, Oct. 25.
Two stunning photos were taken of Perseverance traversing the terrain in that post. You can see more photos that Perseverance has taken since she woke up.
Perseverance arrived on February 18, with the primary task of searching for signs of ancient Mars life, and collecting many samples for future return to Earth. Two tubes of Mars material have been removed by the rover, putting humanity's first interplanetary return effort in motion.
Perseverance was accompanied by Ingenuity, a small helicopter friend that was created to demonstrate that aerial exploration on Mars is possible. Ingenuity completed its 14th Martian flight Sunday (Oct. 24,).
After its first five technology-demonstrating flights, Ingenuity shifted into an extended mission designed to showcase the scouting potential of Martian rotorcraft. Recently, the 4-pound (1.8 kg) helicopter was used to survey terrain for Perseverance. It has driven 1.66 miles (2.67 km) on Jezero's ground.
