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NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This color full-resolution image showing the heat shield of NASA's Curiosity rover was obtained during descent to the surface of Mars on Aug. 5 PT (Aug. 6 ET). The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager, 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. This image shows the inside surface of the heat shield, with its protective insulation. The bright patches are calibration targets for MARDI. Also seen in this image is the MEDLI hardware attached to the inside surface. At this range, the image has a spatial scale of 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) per pixel.
This is no science-fiction movie or UFO hoax: It's a real picture of the heat shield falling away from NASA's Mars Curiosity rover, snapped by a camera on the rover's underside just a couple of minutes before Sunday night's landing. We've already seen a low-resolution movie clip of Curiosity's descent, as recorded by the Mars Descent Imager (a.k.a. MARDI). This is the first high-resolution MARDI imagery to be sent down.
Eventually, hundreds of frames will be transmitted to Earth and combined to create a high-res movie showing the rover's-eye view of Curiosity's touchdown on the Red Planet. "This is the good stuff," said Mike Malin, who heads up the MARDI team.
The imagery has already been compared with pictures taken by satellites orbiting Mars to figure out exactly where Curiosity ended up. Still more of Curiosity's high-resolution cameras are due to get up and running in the days ahead.
This picture, showing a field of dark dunes running across the red Martian soil inside Gale Crater, is just part of one full-resolution frame: For another version of the wide-angle view, sweetened with a little extra image processing, check out Emily Lakdawalla's post on the Planetary Society blog.
Stay tuned for the rest of the movie from Mars. I have a feeling it'll have a happy ending.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
In this wide-angle view, the disk-shaped heat shield from the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft can be seen falling away against the backdrop of the Red Planet's Gale Crater, less than two and a half minutes before the Mars Curiosity rover's landing on Sunday night. This image is part of a full-resolution view provided by the Mars Descent Imager, a camera mounted on the bottom of the rover.
Mike Malin, a member of the Mars Curiosity rover science team, unveils imagery showing where the rover's ballasts hit the surface — as well as a high-resolution view of the rover's heat shield flying away during descent.
Update for 2:30 p.m. ET Aug. 8: I've added the super-amazing flying-saucer close-up at the top of this item, as well as a video featuring Mike Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, explaining the MARDI image as well as some of the attractions seen from orbit.
More amazing sights from the Curiosity mission:
- Orbital photo spots rover and its trash
- Curiosity sends color snapshot from Mars
- Rover video looks down on Mars during landing
- Mars orbiter spots rover in midair
- NASA's Mohawk Guy marvels at his fame
- Curiosity rover scores touchdown on Mars
- Video: Highlights from rover's first two days on Mars
Hat tip to Doug Ellison at UnmannedSpaceFlight.com and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Thanks for the pic NBC. The success of this mission, so far, is the shot in the arm that NASA needed.
We have come so far as a species, yet, we have much further to go. I hope we do find life outside our atmosphere some day. Perhaps it's the shot in the arm this world needs to stop all this silliness thats tearing us apart.
Dear NASA,
Perhaps I don't meed to state the obvious, but I will anyway, just in case.
Very soon might be a good idea to go to Congress, with hat in hand, and try to get more money. For the record, I have already sent a "hand written letter" to my senate and house members for just that purpose.
Hand written letters get the most consideration.
It is incredible that this entire mission cost NASA under $3 billion. Their entire annual budget was less than $18 billion. Compare that to the money allocated to building more weapons we don't need.
The heat shield: THUDDDDD
Mean Magician of Mars: FFFUUUUU I'M DEAD.
The Rover: This doesn't look like Kansas.
Alan, do you know anything about the guidance systems employed during EDL? I know the initial entry portion was guided by thrusters. Was the lander able to take any wind into consideration during the rocket thruster/sky crane portion - or is the atmosphere too thin for any potential wind to blow the lander off course or affect targeting? Was it able to watch out for and avoid landing on boulders?
MSL used a novel "guided entry" approach during EDL, but it was all autonomous, based on MSL's knowledge of its position and where it wanted to go. The first step was to throw off tungsten ballast weights to change the aerodynamics of the spacecraft shell. Thrusters were also used. As it turned out, the rover came straight down at the end, so wind did not appear to be a factor. The mission planners tried to pick a spot that was boulder-free, but I don't think the onboard smarts were sophisticated enough to watch out for boulders specifically. The video on this item talks about the ballasts.
The lander could actually see and react which is so cool.
Artificial intelligence was used to examine the video from the landing cameras for problems combined with laser range finding and radar.
500,000 apparantly error free lines of code to do this.
If our politicans could work together like these dedicated men and women, and put there egos aside, what a country we could be. We are failing in our duty if we leave this mess to future generations, we owe them better.
WOW, imagine that. What a world we could be living in if that were the case.
... It would be easier to send 100 truck drivers to Mars than to get our elected officials to cooperate like these people at NASA did/do...
NASA engineers cooperation = Excellence
Congress members cooperation = Disgrace
Mark Maybe we need more truck drivers in our political system, no could do no worse.
Everyone in Canada KNOWS that this was faked in a Hollywood studio!!!
Thats funny, because everyone in the US knows that CANADA was faked in a Bollywood studio.
Wasn't Hollywood faked at Area-51?
Reminds me of the Saucer section of the Enterprise E.
When astronauts finally get there, they will have to find that saucer and head for the poles looking for ice and snow.
Think about it.. best "Saucer Sled" ever! Literally!
I love articles like this one. A great topic well covered. Awesome. :)
WoW! Ancient Aliens-The Martian Chronicles....cave paintings showing gi-normous saucer & six wheeled contraption...
Love this stuff! I run home at lunch time to catch the JPL (?? is that right??) press conference at 1pm EDT. We are all really from the stars..seriously...all the molecules/atoms were made in the Big Bang (cut me some slack, here)..so we all come from the stars. Our energy returns there when we die (don't get me started).
Earth Is The True Planet Of War, Not Mars (Curiosity Rover)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj5ju9ag2ZI
...Seems the reason folks reply/comment here is to demean the subject heading with atrocities & non-related subjects, transformed into...Issues! I am quite sure if we all just kick back & absorb the brilliance required to even think up something of this nature, put it into the (extremely obvious) concept of Tactful Creativity place comments where they belong instead of on Politics,Guns, & would be little room for Star-Wars!
From the Beginning of the actual ideas formatted onto a Spread-Sheet, to where we are now today with the Science Editor doing his job, lets just all kinda hold hands on this & wish for the very best outcome without contemplating on how valuable such a project as this is, or where else the funding could-have-gone, or how we have now polluted the grounds with debris from getting there in the first place...& hope for the best.
In the interim, Say we find a cure for cancer under a rock, or a product that will enable the world to generate a certain type of cleaner fuel cells, or.......? I for one am not skeptical, & I wish everyone involved a Wonderful journey bringing the knowledge we are still seeking...Back Home!
Stupid, misleading title.
thanks
You know that this will lead to a Martian version of area 51 with a crashed alien vessel under guard. Now the subterranean Martians will be worried about being abducted by aliens from another planet. Fortunately when they do an autopsy on the the crashed aliens, they will think that Earthlings are a metallic silicon based life form that can withstand the extreme rigors of deep space and use a mysterious form of ESP to communicate and with the latest alien, that we can shoot lasers out of our eyes.