NASA has announced the name of its new Mars Rover – Perseverance.

It will be the fifth rover to make its way to the red planet, following in the tyre tracks of Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity.

Speaking of Curiosity, that little rover recently captured the sharpest-ever visual of Mars, giving us a unique look at the surface of the planet.

Perseverance has a lot to live up to.

Per Space.com:

The Curiosity team just released a 1.8-billion-pixel panorama that features Glen Torridon, a region on the flanks of Mars’ 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) Mount Sharpthat the rover has been exploring recently.

The new photo is a composite of more than 1,000 images that Curiosity snapped between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 2019, when the rover team was taking a break for Thanksgiving.

Curiosity took the panorama’s constituent photos using the telephoto lens on the rover’s Mast Camera (Mastcam).

“While many on our team were at home enjoying turkey, Curiosity produced this feast for the eyes,” Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement Wednesday (March 4).

“This is the first time during the mission we’ve dedicated our operations to a stereo 360-degree panorama,” he added.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mars:

Curiosity has been ambling around Mars since August 2012, when it started its mission to try and figure out if the planet could be habitable.

So far, I’d say the rover is doing a pretty good job.

Keep on keeping on, Curiosity.

[source:space]