[Video] "Landing Gently Like Descending on a Desert"... Mars Rover's Touchdown Moment Sent from the US

Vividly Capturing the Landing Process Known as the "7 Minutes of Terror"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] NASA's fifth Mars rover, 'Perseverance,' has released a video capturing the moment it landed on the surface of Mars. The video vividly shows the landing process, known as the "7 minutes of terror," which is considered the most challenging phase during the Mars flight.

On the 22nd (local time), NASA shared the Perseverance Mars surface landing video on Twitter. Perseverance landed on Mars on the 18th at 3:55 PM Eastern Time (5:55 AM Korean Time on the 19th). Steve Jurczyk, Acting Administrator of NASA, stated in a press release, "Perseverance has sent us a video capturing a very important moment in the history of human space exploration," adding, "It shows the moment when advanced engineering technology that makes flying to the Red Planet (Mars) possible shines."

The video released that day is known to have started filming 230 seconds after Perseverance entered the Martian atmosphere. It captured the deployment of the parachute from an altitude of 11 km, the separation of the heat shield, and the rover touching down on the surface. The footage also shows Perseverance descending to the Martian surface while suspended by the straps of its onboard rocket backpack, kicking up dust and gravel.

Particularly, the significance of the video lies in capturing the Mars surface landing process, known as the "7 minutes of terror." This nickname stems from the fact that NASA cannot control the approximately 7-minute-long surface landing phase, which is the most complex and difficult stage of the Mars flight. Due to about an 11-minute communication delay between Earth and Mars, the rover cannot be controlled in real-time, and only signals sent by the rover can be interpreted.

Perseverance is known to be the first NASA Mars rover equipped with cameras capable of video recording. While previous Mars rovers have sent images of Mars, most were composed of stitched-together photos.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Earlier, on the 19th, Perseverance took a high-resolution photo of itself just before landing and sent it to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Additionally, Perseverance sent panoramic photos of the Martian surface along with audio recordings of the moments immediately after landing. NASA attempted to record sounds throughout the entire landing process but was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the microphone is reported to be functioning properly, so it is expected to record all sounds generated during future exploration activities.

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

On the same day, NASA also released photos taken by Mars orbiters showing the Perseverance landing site. The images captured the locations of Perseverance, the separated heat shield, and the detached parachute.

Meanwhile, NASA researchers plan to analyze the photos and videos sent by Perseverance to explore future research routes.