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Curiosity Snaps First Pictures On Mars After Successful Landing

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This is the first image taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a “fisheye” wide-angle lens on one of the rover’s front left Hazard-Avoidance cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The clear dust cover on the camera is still on in this view, and dust can be seen around its edge, along with three cover fasteners. The rover’s shadow is visible in the foreground. 
As planned, the rover’s early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images are expected later in the week when the rover’s mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., celebrate the landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet. The rover touched down on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT).

 Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
 

This is the first image taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a “fisheye” wide-angle lens on one of the rover’s rear left Hazard-Avoidance cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The clear dust cover on the camera is still on in this view, and dust can be seen around its edge, along with three cover fasteners. 

As planned, the rover’s early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images are expected later in the week when the rover’s mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

This image shows one of the first views from NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (early morning hours Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a “fisheye” wide-angle lens on one of the rover’s Hazard-Avoidance cameras. These engineering cameras are located at the rover’s base. As planned, the early images are lower resolution. Larger color images are expected later in the week when the rover’s mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed. 

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
 
This is one of the first images taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a “fisheye” wide-angle lens on the left “eye” of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover. The image is one-half of full resolution. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has been sprung open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover’s wheel. 

On the top left, part of the rover’s power supply is visible. 

 

 Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Some dust appears on the lens even with the dust cover off. 

The cameras are looking directly into the sun, so the top of the image is saturated. Looking straight into the sun does not harm the cameras. The lines across the top are an artifact called “blooming” that occurs in the camera’s detector because of the saturation. 

As planned, the rover’s early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images from other cameras are expected later in the week when the rover’s mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed

This image shows one of the first views from NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (early morning hours Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a “fisheye” wide-angle lens on one of the rover’s Hazard-Avoidance cameras. These engineering cameras are located at the rover’s base. As planned, the early images are lower resolution. Larger color images are expected later in the week when the rover’s mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
 
NASA’s most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation. 

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack. 

“Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars. Curiosity, the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the surface of the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer age-old questions about whether life ever existed on Mars — or if the planet can sustain life in the future,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “This is an amazing achievement, made possible by a team of scientists and engineers from around the world and led by the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet Propulsion Laboratory. President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030′s, and today’s landing marks a significant step toward achieving this goal.” 

Curiosity landed at 10:32 p.m. PDT Aug. 5, (1:32 a.m. EDT Aug. 6) near the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96 miles in diameter inside Gale Crater. During a nearly two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether the region ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life. 


“The Seven Minutes of Terror has turned into the Seven Minutes of Triumph,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Science John Grunsfeld. “My immense joy in the success of this mission is matched only by overwhelming pride I feel for the women and men of the mission’s team.” 

Curiosity returned its first view of Mars, a wide-angle scene of rocky ground near the front of the rover. More images are anticipated in the next several days as the mission blends observations of the landing site with activities to configure the rover for work and check the performance of its instruments and mechanisms. 

“Our Curiosity is talking to us from the surface of Mars,” said MSL Project Manager Peter Theisinger of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. “The landing takes us past the most hazardous moments for this project, and begins a new and exciting mission to pursue its scientific objectives.” 

Confirmation of Curiosity’s successful landing came in communications relayed by NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter and received by the Canberra, Australia, antenna station of NASA’s Deep Space Network. 

 
Gale Crater, where Curiosity will begin its exploration
Credit: © NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / MSSS

Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools are the first of their kind on Mars, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking elemental composition of rocks from a distance. The rover will use a drill and scoop at the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into analytical laboratory instruments inside the rover. 
 
This animation shows the approximate true position of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars. A 3-D virtual model of Curiosity is shown inside Gale Crater, near Mount Sharp, Curiosity’s ultimate destination. 

Like any wise hiker heading out on a trip, Curiosity will do a self-check to make sure her tools are working before she makes her way to the foot of Mount Sharp. 

This animation is derived from a virtual rover experience where the public can be an explorer and follow in Curiosity’s journey day by day. Using the Unity game engine plug-in, the public can see what Curiosity is up to and follow in her footsteps as she explores. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech › Curiosity’s mission site

To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater’s interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history. 

The mission is managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.



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    Total 8 comments
    • Anonymous

      So everyone is so glad that a selfish fraction of the populace just sent a robot to another planet at great cost to accomplish what?? Does this solve the problem of lack of freshwater on Planet Earth? Why are a privileged few celebrating such a worthless endeavor when multiple problems of dire consequence such as overpopulation, drought, disease and religious insanity overshadow any possible benefit of a Mars landing?? NASA just wasted how many taxpayer dollars benefiting how many of us here in the Recession?? What will all that effort and money do for the millions of unemployed, make them wish they had a fat NASA budget to feed off of?? What a monumental waste of resources for such a dubious return. Who really gives a good damn what is happening on Mars, I sure as hell don’t?? I have 12 cats to feed, rent to pay, overpriced gasoline and food to buy. I care about THIS planet and the myriad problems facing OUR society, not microbes on Mars. When does NASA solve the freshwater dilemma, after it has sent fancy robots to other planets to send back pictures of rocks??? What utter madness. The only thing they did ‘BIG TIME” is waste taxpayer money performing absolutely useless stunts in Space. Which one of you can offer an immediate benefit to the 30 million unemployed people here in America? How dare NASA waste such technology on a lifeless planet that has zero point zero to do with everyday life here

      • Anonymous

        You forgot to mention Liberalism.

      • Maverick

        You are such a friggin moron. This is a fantastic achievement for all of man kind.

        How about you try complaining about all the TRILLIONS wasted in your Military. And if you cant afford to feed 12 animals, why in the hell do you own 12 cats?

        The biggest problem facing any society is people living beyond their means, and you are a prime example.

    • Levi

      I think the fact that you have 12 cats says it all.

    • Anonymous

      Lol 12 cats.

    • Room With a View

      Why the big fuss? Don’t they already have a robot taking pictures on the surface of Mars? Unless of course, those robots are actually just in Antartica filming the bare waste beyond the snow line. It has been likened to the surface of Mars.
      This is just more NASA BS.

    • Don't be hating!

      Reaally like NASA is going to tell the world the TRUTH and show us “live” feed/images of Mars..What a freaking joke…Is bad enough we don’t take care of our own planet let alone explore another..Waste of money and technology..I say use advance technology to clean up Earth!

    • Indian in the machine

      They’ve been sending rovers to mars for awhile… not a big deal… just a distraction… enjoy watching your tonka truck!

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