First 360-Degree Panorama From NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover

 

Rocket Thrusters Expose Bedrock

This is a close-up view of a zone where the soil at Curiosity’s landing site was blown away by the thrusters on the rover’s descent stage. The excavation of the soil reveals probable bedrock outcrop. This is important because it shows the shallow depth of the soil in this area. The area surrounding the zones of excavation shows abundant small rocks that may form a pavement-like layer above harder bedrock.  This full-resolution image was taken by the rover’s Navigation camera. 
 Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

Curiosity’s New Home

These are the first two full-resolution images of the Martian surface from the Navigation cameras on NASA’s Curiosity rover, which are located on the rover’s “head” or mast. The rim of Gale Crater can be seen in the distance beyond the pebbly ground. 

The topography of the rim is very mountainous due to erosion. The ground seen in the middle shows low-relief scarps and plains. The foreground shows two distinct zones of excavation likely carved out by blasts from the rover’s descent stage thrusters. 

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Before and After Curiosity’s Touchdown

These images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show a before-and-after comparison of the area where NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The images were taken by the Context Camera on MRO on Aug. 1 and Aug. 7. 

They show the landing effects of the descent stage, the rover lander, the back shell and parachute, and the heat shield, all found on the left side of the image (west of the dune field). On the right side of the image, in a line with the rover and heat shield, are small dark features that very much resemble impact sites seen by the Context Camera elsewhere on Mars. These are interpreted to be the impact sites of the tungsten

 

Entry Ballast Masses released by the entry vehicle just before parachute deployment. 
The Context Camera took the pictures at a resolution of 20 feet (6 meters) per pixel. The images here are projected at 16 feet (5 meters) per pixel. 

The Aug. 7 image was taken at the same time as a post-landing image taken by the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (see PIA16001). The Context Camera image is 20 times lower in resolution but covers an area almost 20 times larger. The wider field of view and longer image permits the Context Camera to perform reconnaissance for higher resolution targets. A Context Camera image is typically about 19 by 171 miles (30 by 275 kilometers) but because the camera was looking at an angle, it covered a swath about 26 by 171 miles (42 by 275 kilometers). 

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

 

Gravel-Covered Martian Surface

This full-resolution color image from NASA’s Curiosity Rover shows the gravel-covered surface of Mars. It was taken by the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) several minutes after Curiosity touched down on Mars. 

The camera is about 30 inches (70 centimeters) from the surface as the rover sits on the ground. The image pixel scale is about 0.02 inches (0.5 millimeters), but the camera is slightly out of focus at this distance, so the actual ground scale is about 0.06 inches (1.5 millimeters). A sliver of sunlight passing through the structure of the rover illuminates the surface. The largest rock fragment in the image is about 2 inches (5 centimeters) long. Most are much smaller. A rover wheel is visible at the top left. 

This is the 1,008th image that MARDI took. The original image from MARDI has been geometrically corrected to look MARDI took. 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