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First Mars Rover Color Image, Descent Animation
Tuesday, August 7, 2012 19:42
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Images are continuing to come in from the Mars Science Laboratory mission, and even the satellites that fly over the Red Planet. NASA captured the descent of the spacecraft using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its University of Arizona-operated High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, or HiRISE. In the picture taken some 211 miles away, you can see the supersonic parachute deployed. You can also watch the heat shield drop away from the vehicle some five miles above the surface in a stop motion video released by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 297 frames, taken at 4 frames per second by the Curiosity Mars Descent Imager, or MARDI, compose the video of the August 5 landing. Later, you can see the dust being kicked up by the retrorockets, and a rover wheel appears in the corner as Curiosity is lowered by skycrane. The early initial images of Mars' surface coming from Curiosity have been from the Hazard-avoidance cameras. These wide-angle black-and-white Hazcams are aimed at the ground to detect hazards. In this image, you can see the three-mile-high Mount Sharp. The first color image from Curiosity has also arrived. It is taken from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI); the image is murky because the transparent dust cover, which protects the lens from dust blown up during descent, is coated with dust and has not been removed yet. Curiosity has twelve cameras, for many different functions, and some are capable of capturing 3D. Expect many more to trickle in over …
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2012-08-07 19:39:49
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9IUDvqnhpg&feature=youtube_gdata
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