Mars?

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet snapped this image of Earth during his second long-duration mission known as Alpha. He posted it on social media saying "I thought I was orbiting Mars when I saw this view! No cloud in sight and the red and ochre colours stretching to the horizon. This is how I imagine the Perseverance rover would have seen Mars on its approach to landing. A huge shout-out to the NASA teams that flew a helicopter on Mars and also the French teams that recorded the flight with audio! Mars exploration is hard but we are making enormous progress. China landed its Zhurong rover on Mars too, becoming only the second nation to do so successfully. ESA's ExoMars TGO mission is orbiting Mars and the ExoMars rover is set for launch next year. Mars robotic exploration and human exploration go hand in hand: exploring farther and extending human presence. Scientists believe Mars was once a very different planet and its environment changed over billions of years, learning more about its history can help us protect our future on our amazing home planet. ESA and NASA are teaming up to bring pieces of Mars to Earth this decade too!"

Thomas was launched to the International Space Station for his second mission, Alpha, on 23 April 2021. He will spend six months living and working on the orbital outpost where he will support more than 200 international experiments in space.

Follow Thomas and his Mission Alpha on his blog.