Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission: NASA's Curiosity rover lands on Mars, 6th August 2012

[dylans]

^ Clearly a hologram.

Its a flying saucer from Earth

 

[dylans]

First colour landscape pic

This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the afternoon of the first day after landing. (The team calls this day Sol 1, which is the first Martian day of operations; Sol 1 began on Aug. 6, 2012.)

In the distance, the image shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The image is murky because the MAHLI's removable dust cover is apparently coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover's terminal descent. Images taken without the dust cover in place are expected during checkout of the robotic arm in coming weeks.

The MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. At the time the MAHLI Sol 1 image was acquired, the robotic arm was in its stowed position. It has been stowed since the rover was packaged for its Nov. 26, 2011, launch.

The MAHLI has a transparent dust cover. This image was acquired with the dust cover closed. The cover will not be opened until more than a week after the landing.

When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is in a position that is rotated 30 degrees relative to the rover deck. The MAHLI image shown here has been rotated to correct for that tilt, so that the sky is "up" and the ground is "down".

When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is looking out from the front left side of the rover. This is much like the view from the driver's side of cars sold in the USA.

 

[Firky]

 

[2hats]

It was a little painful to watch the live feed of the descent and spot the interview guest who was focused on domestic politics/trotting out half arsed jingoistic nonsense to play to ill-informed voters. Step forward Obama's science advisor John Holdren who came out with "we (the USA) are the only country that has landed surface landers on any other planet" (see from 45 minutes here).

Um, Venera (and I'd add Huygens, Hayabusa).

Increasingly less provincial viewpoints as we moved from NASA administrator Charlie Bolden to JPL directory Charles Elachi... There are few space science missions that don't involve international collaboration and most make a point of it.

 

[cesare]

They were commenting in the early morning news programme that it was a pity that the US weren't being quite as gracious as they were previously with Apollo, "on behalf of humanity" type of thing.

 

[2hats]

They were commenting in the early morning news programme that it was a pity that the US weren't being quite as gracious as they were previously with Apollo, "on behalf of humanity" type of thing.

Couldn't tell it's an election year, I guess.

Anyway, MSL Sol 2 post-landing news briefing coming up in a few minutes...

 

[cesare]

Couldn't tell it's an election year, I guess.

The BBC presenter, presumably for "impartiality" reasons, swiftly mumbled something about NASA having a difficult time recently etc.

 

[2hats]

The "crime scene" as spotted by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:



Detail in the parachute still attached to the backshell:



Better imaging opportunity expected in 5 days time, I think it was (e2a: these were a 'special' at extreme slant range, so lower resolution, more dust obscuration, greater atmospheric extinction and sub-optimal lighting angles).

Curiosity high gain antenna appears to have deployed properly.

 

[2hats]

That is so fucking cool.

The plummeting heat shield was actually in the wider shot (subsequently spotted):

 

[sleaterkinney]

Much longer video

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

 

[editor]

BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19172564

 

[ExtraRefined]

It's not even accurate really. The Soviets did the first flyby and first landing, although the latter was an almost total failure.

 

[editor]

Here's some stunning panoramas from Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. More here: http://mashable.com/2012/08/08/mars-interactive-panorama/

Hopefully we'll be seeing even better pics soon from this mission!

 

[dylans]

First navcam images

Right Navcam

Left navcam

 

[editor]

Stunning!

*thumbs*

 

[Crispy]

Mountains!

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Simply bonkers.

 

[bi0boy]

Hard to judge distance on Mars, are they mountains or little hillocks 200 yards away?

 

[Crispy]

Hard to judge distance on Mars, are they mountains or little hillocks 200 yards away?

They're mountains. The rover landed inside the white circle. The mountain ranges are actually the rim of the crater to the NE and SW.

They're thousands of meters tall. The mountain in front of the rover:

is 4,500m high. Mars' low gravity means that the vertical features are TALL

 

[bi0boy]

Taller mountains plus shorter horizons would be well discombobulating if you were actually there or didn't have a map.

 

[Firky]

They also have sand geysers, that spit up sand and small debris miles into the atmosphere.

 

[Firky]

I am hoping Brian Cox does a good documentary on all this and isn't forced to dumb it down for complete and utter morons.

 

[xes]

you can hope all you like

 

[Crispy]

I just can't wait until our exploration technology gets good enough to take pictures of the really dramatic scenery on Mars. There are vertical cliffs 8km tall.

 

[RaverDrew]

black and white retro style photos ?

NASA you hipster twats

 

[PursuedByBears]

Amazing pictures, proper exciting stuff.

 

[editor]

The 19760s Viking pic has an air of Instagram colour about it.

 

[dylans]

Hi Res version of the heat shield separation

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 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument 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 multi-layered insulation. The bright patches are calibration targets for MARDI. Also seen in this image is the Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrument (MEDLI) hardware attached to the inside surface.

At this range, the image has a spatial scale of 0.4 inches (1 cm) per pixel. It is the 36th MARDI image, obtained about three seconds after heat shield separation and about two and one-half minutes before touchdown

 

[dylans]

First colour panorama pics expected tomorrow.

 

[Firky]

Hi Res version of the heat shield separation

That is purely mint.