Mars Rover Landing Photos

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NASAs Curiosity rover and its parachute were
spotted by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as
Curiosity descended to the surface on Aug. 5 PDT
(Aug. 6 EDT). The High-Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image of
Curiosity--the rover and its parachute are in the
center of the white box.
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The green diamond shows approximately where
NASAs Curiosity rover landed on Mars a region
about 2 kilometers northeast of its target in the
center of the estimated landing region (blue
ellipse).
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This is one of the first images taken by NASAs
Curiosity rover which landed on Mars the evening
of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was
taken through a fisheye wide-angle lens on the
left eye of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance
cameras on the left-rear side of the rover.
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In this black and white photo released by NASAs
JPL-Caltech This is the first image taken by
NASAs Curiosity rover which landed on Mars the
evening of Aug. 5 a.m. PDT. It was taken through
a fisheye wide-angle lens on one of the rovers
front left Hazard-Avoidance cameras at
one-quarter of full resolution. The clear dust
cover on the camera is still on in this view and
dust can be seen around its edge.
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A spectator watches a live stream of the Mars
Curiosity landing while listening to an audio
broadcast on her phone among the hundreds of
other on-lookers in Times Square August 6 2012
in New York. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352
million miles Curiosity landed on Mars Sunday
night.
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Steve Collins waits during the Seven Minutes of
Terror as the rover approaches the surface of
mars inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility
for NASAs Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity
rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
California The Curiosity robot is equipped with
a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks
and ingesting soil measuring habitability and
potentially paving the way for human exploration.
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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden smiles as the
rover begins its decent to the surface of mars
inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for
NASAs Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena Calif.
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This photo released by NASA shows the view from
the balcony of the control rooms at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory the Dark Room in the
foreground Deep Space Network control room on
the right and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Mission Support Area back left in Pasadena
Calif. The MSL Rover named Curiosity is designed
to assess whether Mars ever had an environment
able to support small life forms called microbes.
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In this photo released by NASAs JPL Members
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team work in the
MSL Mission Support Area at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory hours ahead of the planned landing of
the Curiosity rover on Mars Sunday Aug. 5 2012
in Pasadena Calif.
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Shannon Lampton and Charlene Pittman both
educators with the U.S. Space and Rocket Center
cheer as they watch NASAs Mars Curiosity rover
land on Mars during a special viewing event at
the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Monday Aug. 6
2012 in Huntsville Ala.
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In a photo provided by NASA the Mars Science
Laboratory team in the MSL Mission Support Area
reacts after learning the the Curiosity rover has
landed safely on Mars and images start coming in
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Mars Sunday
Aug. 5 2012 in Pasadena Calif.
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Alex Trebek in the picture
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Lennon Batchelor 27 of Orlando center pauses
while watching a live stream of the Mars
Curiosity landing while neighboring spectators
cheer in Times Square after the successful
touch-down August 6 2012 in New York. After
traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles
Curiosity landed on Mars Sunday night.
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Mars Science Laboratory Flight Director Keith
Comeaux left talks to his team inside the
Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASAs Mars
Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena Calif.
on Sunday Aug. 5 2012.
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Activity lead Bobak Ferdowsi who cuts his hair
differently for each mission works inside the
Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASAs Mars
Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena Calif.
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In this photo provided by NASA the Mars Science
Laboratory (MSL) team welcomes White House
Science and Technology Advisor John Holdren
third standing from left as he stops by to meet
the landing team and to say Go Curiosity as
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden second from
left and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director
Charles Elachi far left look on Sunday Aug. 5
2012 at JPL in Pasadena Calif.
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In this photo released by NASA an empty jar
marked Days Until Entry and a jar full of
marbles marked Days Since Launch sit on a
conference room table during a meeting of the
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena Calif. The
MSL team has been moving one marble a day since
launch from jar to jar.
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This artists rendering released by
NASA/JPL-Caltech on Sunday Aug. 5 2012 shows
how NASAs Curiosity rover will communicate with
Earth during landing. As the rover descends to
the surface of Mars it will send out two
different types of data basic radio-frequency
tones that go directly to Earth (pink dots) and
more complex UHF radio data (blue circles) that
require relaying by orbiters
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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) director
Charles Elachi presents a can of good luck
peanuts during an overview of the status and
plans for NASAs Science Mission Directorate at
JPL in Pasadena Calif. Sunday Aug. 5 2012.
After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million
miles Curiosity will attempt a landing on Mars
Sunday night.
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In this file photo taken Adam Steltzner Mars
Science Laboratorys entry descent and landing
phase leader at JPL uses a scale model to
explains the Curiosity rovers Entry Descent
and Landing (EDL) during the Mission Engineering
Overview news briefing at NASAs Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena Calif.
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This Aug. 2 2012 file photo shows Nick Lam data
controller monitoring the Mars rover Curiosity
from the Deep Space Networks control room at
NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
Calif. NASAs Curiosity rover is zooming toward
Mars. With about a day to go until a landing
attempt the space agency says the
nuclear-powered rover appears on course.
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(From L) John Grunsfeld NASA associate
administrator Richard Cook MSL deputy project
manager Pete Theisinger MSL project manager
Adam Steltzner MSL entry descent and landing
(EDL) lead and John Grotzinger MSL project
scientist from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
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A visitor takes a photo of a sign reading Rover
Xing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in
Pasadena California August 2 2012 ahead of the
landing of the Mars rover Curiosity
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Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission members
work in the data processing room beside Mission
Control at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in
Pasadena California August 2 2012 ahead of the
landing of the Mars rover Curiosity.
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Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity members from
left Richard Cook MSL deputy project manager
Adam Steltzner MSL entry descent and landing
(EDL) lead and John Grotzinger MSL project
scientist California Institute of Technology
from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity
Rover mission team celebrate the landing of
Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars at NASAs
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena Calif.
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The target landing area for NASAs Mars Science
Laboratory mission was the ellipse marked on this
image of Gale Crater. The ellipse is about 12
miles long and 4 miles wide (20 kilometers by 7
kilometers).
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A June 2012 revision of the landing target area
for Curiosity the big rover of NASAs Mars
Science Laboratory mission reduced the areas
size. It also put the center of the landing area
closer to Mount Sharp which bears geological
layers that are the missions prime destination.
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This set of images compares test images taken by
four cameras on NASAs Curiosity rover at NASAs
Jet Propulsion Laboratory before launch.
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This image shows the topography with shading
added around the area where NASAs Curiosity
rover is slated to land. Red indicates higher
areas and purple indicates lower areas with a
total elevation range of about 600 feet (nearly
200 meters). The red oval indicates the targeted
landing area for the rover known as the landing
ellipse
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This is a close-up view of the northern
two-thirds of one of the quadrangles (number 50)
that were mapped onto the landing region of
NASAs Curiosity rover. Note the presence of
layered deposits around the rim of an impact
crater as well as along a scarp that traces
through the center of the quad. These exposures
are reminiscent of the terrain studied by NASAs
Opportunity rover where exploration was limited
to the layered deposits exposed along the flanks
of craters.
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This image shows engineers predictions of where
NASAs Curiosity rover would enter the atmosphere
of Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The
background image is a false-color image from the
Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera
on NASAs Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
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Painting demo by members of the International
Association of Astronomical Artists. Four artists
are working on this image of Curiosity on Mars
with the point of view being from the Gale
Crater. The painting will be presented to Bill
Nye. The two men in the photos are artists Aldo
Spadoni (left) and Jon Ramer (right) of IAAA.
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We had a big party at Riff Raff Studio in Silver
Lake in Los Angeles. There were red lights
fittingly bathing the party in a Martian glow.
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by Meredith Bennett-Smithwww.huffingtonpost.com