--- title: "Incredible Photo Shows NASA Mars Rover Hanging Below “Sky Crane”" description: "Jetpack Snapshot NASA has released the next photo sent to us all the way from Mars courtesy of its Perseverance mission, which successfully landed on the Red Planet on Thursday. The incredible image shows the rover hanging below the probe’s “sky crane,” a rocket-powered device that lowered perseverance from an altitude of about 70 feet […]" date: "2021-02-19" modified: "2021-02-19" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/incredible-photo-nasa-mars-rover-hanging-below-sky-crane" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Mars" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "JPL" - "mars" - "NASA" - "perseverance" - "the digest" --- # Incredible Photo Shows NASA Mars Rover Hanging Below “Sky Crane” ![NASA has released the next photo sent to us all the way from Mars courtesy of its Perseverance mission, which successfully landed on Thursday.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Jetpack Snapshot NASA has released a new photo sent to us all the way from Mars courtesy of its Perseverance rover, which [successfully landed]() on the Red Planet on Thursday. The incredible image shows the rover hanging below the probe's "sky crane," a rocket-powered device that lowered Perseverance from an altitude of about 70 feet down to the surface below. A similarly designed crane also was used to lower NASA's Curiosity rover during its 2012 landing. https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1362825545227018240 The image shows a stunning amount of detail, capturing not only the entire top side of the rover itself, but also the craggy Martian surface below. "This shot from a camera on my 'jetpack' captures me in midair, just before my wheels touched down," the [rover's official Twitter]() account wrote. "This is something we've never seen before," Aaron Stehura, a systems engineer at JPL, said of the jetpack image during today's live stream. "It was stunning and the team was awe struck." ## Mars in Color NASA also released a full color resolution version of the surrounding Jezero Crater, as taken by the rover's hazard camera it uses to safely navigate the surface. ![]() An additional image shows one of the rover's wheels close up. ![]() ## Doing Well During a Friday briefing, the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory noted that Perseverance is doing well. The rover "continues to be highly functional and awesome and I'm exhilarated," an excited Pauline Hwang, mission operations system manager for the Perseverance Mars rover at JPL, said during [today's press conference](). Perseverance will now transition to using surface software to check its various instruments and eventually begin its journey across the Martian surface. **READ MORE:** [NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV]() \[NASA\] **More on Perseverance:** *[BREAKING: NASA Successfully Lands Perseverance Rover on Mars]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()