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this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover
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On the plains of Jezero, the secrets of Mars' past await us! Follow for the latest news, updates, pretty pics, and community discussion on NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's most ambitious mission to Mars!
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That dust just gets everywhere. This things been flying around everywhere and it still took on the color of the planet
That particular image was acquired just after it was deployed by the rover on April 6, 2021 (Sol 45) Prior to its first flight, which took place on April 19, 2021 (Sol 58)
It's thought that the dust on the solar array panel was accumulated above the helicopter during landing (by the enormous dust cloud kicked up by the landing thrusters) The six weeks the helicopter spent strapped under the rover while they hunted for a suitable deployment location for the helicopter probably also led to some additional dust buildup.
It's much dustier these days, but sadly they have not taken any matching close-up images in the 2.5 years since deployment.
Ah so the preview image isn't directly related to the content of the post, that makes sense. Thanks!
Correct, the mission team usually select one from an earlier flight :) In this case they used a Black and White image, so I dug through the archive and used that colour image, sorry for the confusion :)