Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ken]

Larger (resized) version of that awesome image:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/674237main_PIA16001-43_946-710.jpg

The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing. The large, reduced-scale image points out the strewn hardware: the heat shield was the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down, and finally, after cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest and crashed. Relatively dark areas in all four spots are from disturbances of the bright dust on Mars, revealing the darker material below the surface dust.

Around the rover, this disturbance was from the sky crane thrusters, and forms a bilaterally symmetrical pattern. The darkened radial jets from the sky crane are downrange from the point of oblique impact, much like the oblique impacts of asteroids. In fact, they make an arrow pointing to Curiosity.

This image was acquired from a special 41-degree roll of MRO, larger than the normal 30-degree limit. It rolled towards the west and towards the sun, which increases visible scattering by atmospheric dust as well as the amount of atmosphere the orbiter has to look through, thereby reducing the contrast of surface features. Future images will show the hardware in greater detail. Our view is tilted about 45 degrees from the surface (more than the 41-degree roll due to planetary curvature), like a view out of an airplane window. Tilt the images 90 degrees clockwise to see the surface better from this perspective. The views are primarily of the shadowed side of the rover and other objects.

The image scale is 39 centimeters (15.3 inches) per pixel.

[orange]

Fun fact - the tire treads are designed to spell out JPL in Morse Code.  They also allow the team to determine the distance the rover has traveled based on the images of its tracks.

[Casiella]

Scorch marks, best marks.

[orange]

Panorama...

[Ken]

Split screen video showing the EDL sequence from both simulation and from the vehicle's own POV: http://youtu.be/GMsdobLq1-4

Also awesome, the heat shield was imaged impacting the surface on the rover's descent camera: http://youtu.be/vVLPXfF3l_U

[orange]

Wiggle in the Gravel before moving.

[Ken]

The landing sequence video (originally shot by the rover at 4 fps) has been edited to 24 fps, a frame rate that more or less shows how it happened in real time.  Beautiful video:

http://youtu.be/fJgeoHBQpFQ

[orange]

Ken - you have to find the next fun thing 


Curiosity first 360 Color

[Lyn Farel]

 

[orange]

Ken, you disappoint

Wired has a nice gallery.

[Z.Sinraali]

I expected more duckface in a self-shot gallery.

[Ken]

By far the best shot from the self-portrait gallery:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[orange]

Streambed!  FTW!

[Ken]

Shouldn't be much longer before we stumble across the Prothean ruins.

[Z.Sinraali]

Shouldn't be much longer before we stumble across the Prothean ruins.

I'm waiting for the Tharsis cache.