Posted on 08/07/2012 10:38:08 AM PDT by dragnet2
This image taken by NASA's Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover -- its main science target, Mount Sharp. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising up in the distance is the highest peak Mount Sharp at a height of about 3.4 miles, taller than Mt. Whitney in California. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the rover to the mountain to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think hold clues to past environmental change.
This image was captured by the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance camera at full resolution shortly after it landed. It has been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity's Heat Shield in View
This color thumbnail image was obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover during its descent to the surface of Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument known as MARDI and shows the 15-foot (4.5-meter) diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet (16 meters) from the spacecraft. It was obtained two and one-half minutes before touching down on the surface of Mars and about three seconds after heat shield separation. It is among the first color images Curiosity sent back from Mars. The resolution of all of the MARDI frames is reduced by a factor of eight in order for them to be promptly received on Earth during this early phase of the mission. Full resolution (1,600 by 1,200 pixel) images will be returned to Earth over the next several months as Curiosity begins its scientific exploration of Mars.
The original image from MARDI has been geometrically corrected to look flat.
Curiosity landed inside of a crater known as Gale Crater.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
way too cool!
too bad the poofter-in-chief cut NASA funding and made them into a muslim-outreach program
How long did it take to get there? 8 years?
When does it start sending the
Baraq-Biden 2012 campaign broadcasts?
What they really mean is "... which scientists think hold proof of Global Warming."
Thanks for posting! Living proof we’re still a great country.
Launched November, 2011.
Seeing the pics makes me imagine what it would be like to be there.
The isolation would be incredible, even if you went as part of a team - an entire planet devoid of life, at least as we know it.
I’d go just to get away from the telemarketers.
You didn’t build that!
All that way and they only brought a black and white camera!
Obligatory conspiracy theory rant: Must have been due to the Obama NASA budget cuts!!!! This should be national outrage!!!
I wonder what the reference point is (for 0 ft elevation) for Martian elevations. Mt. Whitney is 14,500 ft above sea level, but is only about half that above the surrounding plain.
If Mt. Sharp is 3.4 miles above the surrounding plain, then that is a really tall mountain.
Given my Geometry and Algebra grades, I surely didn’t!!
The initial images are low quality so they can be sent quickly.
Due to budget cuts Curiosity is equipped with less than optimal photographic equipment:
The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Credit: NASA
Litterbugs ;-)
Dunes? The spice must flow!
Thanks for that. The parachute seems to give away which way the wind was blowing.
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