[meteorite-list] Curiosity Mars Rover Gleams in View from Orbiter

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:05:06 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201307241905.r6OJ56Rq018612_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-233

Curiosity Mars Rover Gleams in View from Orbiter
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 24, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. -- An image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
released today shows NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and the wheel tracks
from its landing site to the "Glenelg" area where the rover worked for
the first half of 2013.

The image is available at
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17080 and
http://uahirise.org/ESP_032436_1755 .

The orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera
captured the scene on June 27, 2013, with the orbiter rolled for an
eastward-looking angle rather than straight downward. The afternoon sun
illuminated the scene from the western sky, so the lighting was nearly
behind the camera. This geometry hides shadows and reveals subtle color
variations.

Curiosity that day was examining an outcrop called "Shaler," the rover
mission's final science target in the Glenelg area before commencing a
many-month trek southwestward to an entry point for the lower layers of
Mount Sharp. The rover appears as a bright blue spot in the enhanced
coloring of the image.

The image shows two scour marks at the Bradbury Landing site where the
Mars Science Laboratory mission's skycrane landing system placed
Curiosity onto the ground on Aug. 6, 2012, EDT and Universal Time (Aug.
5, PDT). The scour marks are where the landing system's rockets cleared
away reddish surface dust. Visible tracks commencing at the landing site
show the path the rover traveled eastward to Glenelg.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument
was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project
and Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington.

For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/mro . For more information about Curiosity, visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-233
Received on Wed 24 Jul 2013 03:05:06 PM PDT