New images from Nasa Perseverance rover 

Special Desk 

The American space agency is expected to release new photos from its Perseverance rover shortly following touch down by the one-tonne robot in Mars’ Jezero Crater.

Perseverance is sitting almost bang in the middle of its targeted landing zone, about 2km to the southeast of what remains of an ancient river delta that formed at the edge of a lake. Nasa engineers were delighted to see that hazard-avoidance systems had steered the rover away from tricky terrain in the last moments before wheels down.

The coming days will be consumed by getting Perseverance properly commissioned. Nasa will want to check over the hardware to be sure nothing was damaged during what would have been a rough ride to the ground.

Perseverance’s mast, with its main camera system, must be raised. The software that got the vehicle to Mars’s surface must also now be exchanged for a software system that enables the robot to drive across that surface. But it’s going to be the pictures that will enthral the public, of course.

“For the first time, we’re going to see ourselves in high-definition video landing on another planet,” said deputy project manager Matt Wallace.

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Perseverance will sample the base of the delta and then move towards the rim of the crater. It’s at the rim that satellites have detected carbonate rocks, which on Earth are particularly good at trapping biological activity.