[meteorite-list] Scene of a Martian Landing

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 13:02:00 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201208072002.q77K20bP000772_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/PIA16001.html

Scene of a Martian Landing
NASA
August 7, 2012

[Image]

The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's
Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
(MRO). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera
captured this image about 24 hours after landing. The large,
reduced-scale image points out the strewn hardware: the heat shield was
the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached
to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down, and finally, after
cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest and crashed.
Relatively dark areas in all four spots are from disturbances of the
bright dust on Mars, revealing the darker material below the surface dust.

Around the rover, this disturbance was from the sky crane thrusters, and
forms a bilaterally symmetrical pattern. The darkened radial jets from
the sky crane are downrange from the point of oblique impact, much like
the oblique impacts of asteroids. In fact, they make an arrow pointing
to Curiosity.

This image was acquired from a special 41-degree roll of MRO, larger
than the normal 30-degree limit. It rolled towards the west and towards
the sun, which increases visible scattering by atmospheric dust as well
as the amount of atmosphere the orbiter has to look through, thereby
reducing the contrast of surface features. Future images will show the
hardware in greater detail. Our view is tilted about 45 degrees from the
surface (more than the 41-degree roll due to planetary curvature), like
a view out of an airplane window. Tilt the images 90 degrees clockwise
to see the surface better from this perspective. The views are primarily
of the shadowed side of the rover and other objects.

The image scale is 39 centimeters (15.3 inches) per pixel.

Complete HiRISE image products are available at:
http://uahirise.org/releases/msl-descent.php.

HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera,
which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
 
Received on Tue 07 Aug 2012 04:02:00 PM PDT