[meteorite-list] Video Shows Rover Heat Shield Hit Mars, Create Dust Cloud

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 17:56:17 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201208200056.q7K0uHkQ024409_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Video Feature

Video Shows Rover Heat Shield Hit Mars, Create Dust Cloud
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 17, 2012

A new NASA video, available at http://bit.ly/heatshield, shows the
cloud of dust that rose from the surface of the Red Planet after
the Curiosity rover's heat shield hit the Martian terrain during
the spacecraft's descent on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The video was
made using a sequence of 25 images taken by the Mars Descent Imager
on Curiosity while the rover was still suspended on a parachute,
after the spacecraft had jettisoned its heat shield.

A dark spot, the shadow of the heat shield, enters the scene from
lower left, moving toward the center. The bright heat shield itself
is also apparent just before the shadow and hardware meet in the
impact on the surface. The area of ground visible in the images is
about six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) across. The frames are
cropped portions of full-frame images from the Mars Descent Imager.

Watch the full video, which shows the impact at various speeds, at
http://bit.ly/heatshield.

The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate
in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL,
a division of Caltech. The Mars Descent Imager was provided by Malin
Space Science Systems, San Diego.

For more information about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl and http://www.nasa.gov/msl .

DC Agle / Guy Webster 818-393-9011 / 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov / guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

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Received on Sun 19 Aug 2012 08:56:17 PM PDT