--- title: "In Reversal, NASA Is Now Releasing RAW Images From Perseverance" description: "As of today, you can access dozens of RAW images from NASA's Perseverance Mars lander, with many more hopefully on the way." date: "2021-02-22" modified: "2021-02-22" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-now-releasing-raw-images-perseverance" categories: - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "mars" - "NASA" - "perseverance" - "the digest" --- # In Reversal, NASA Is Now Releasing RAW Images From Perseverance ![As of today, you can access dozens of RAW images from NASA's Perseverance Mars lander, with many more hopefully on the way.]() *\Image: NASA / Futurism\* ## Photo Finish Yesterday, [Futurism reported]() that NASA had broken with tradition by not releasing the RAW images from its newly-landed Perseverance Mars rover — a retreat from transparency in the era of digital photography. A NASA spokesperson didn't reply to our request for comment, but it now appears that the space agency has reversed course. As of today, you can access [dozens of RAW images]() from the Perseverance mission, with many more hopefully on the way. ## Camera Culture At press time, there are 145 RAW images in NASA's newly-hatched Perseverance archive. That's a lot better than the three shots available yesterday, but it's still a long shot from the thousands of first-day images — [and hundreds of thousands total]() — that emerged from the agency's Curiosity rover mission. These are still early releases, but a [handful of the shots]() do already capture the essence of the lonely rover, far away on an alien world. And that's without getting into the immense scientific value they'll provide for researchers. ## The Messenger Still, advocating for transparency from the world's premier space agency isn't always easy. Renowned planetary scientist and author Emily Lakdawalla, who [first drew attention]() to the lack of RAW images, said that she's been facing a torrent of mistreatment online after calling out NASA for the missing RAW shots. "The following is going to sound incredibly naive, I know, but: there are people in this community who make it their career to criticize government and hold them to account," she [wrote on Twitter]() this morning. "For the last couple of days I’ve been doing that, and the response to my advocacy has been abuse." **READ MORE:** [Perseverance Raw Images]() \[NASA\] **More on Perseverance:** [*Why Isn’t NASA Releasing RAW Images from Perseverance?*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()