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Curiosity’s Landing Leftovers
Enhanced-color HiRISE image of 4 impact craters from MSL’s ballast weights (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
During its “seven minutes of terror” landing on August 6, 2012, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory dropped quite a few things down onto the Martian surface: pieces from the cruise stage, a heat shield, a parachute, the entry capsule’s backshell, a sky crane, one carefully-placed rover (obviously) and also eight tungsten masses — weights used for ballast and orientation during the descent process.
Two 75 kilogram (165 lb) blocks were released near the top of the atmosphere, and six 25 kg (55 lb) weights a bit farther down, just before the deployment of the parachute. The image above, an enhanced-color image from the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the impact craters from four of these smaller tungsten masses in high resolution.
These four craters are part of a chain of six from all the 55 kg weights. See below for context:
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Read the rest of Curiosity’s Landing Leftovers (128 words)
© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. |
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Post tags: craters, Curiosity, HiRISE, landing, Mars, MRO, MSL, seven minutes of terror
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2013-03-02 17:15:55
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/100409/curiositys-landing-leftovers/
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