[meteorite-list] First 360-Degree Panorama From NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2012 15:24:37 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201208082224.q78MObI4006476_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-235

First 360-Degree Panorama From NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 8, 2012

Images:
    * Curiosity's Heat Shield in Detail <#1>
    * Curiosity Looks Away from the Sun <#2>
    * NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Image <#3>
    * Rover's Self Portrait <#4>
    * Curiosity's New Home <#5>
    * Before and After Curiosity's Touchdown <#6>
    * Ballasts Hitting the Surface, Close-Up <#7>
    * Ballasts Hitting the Surface, Close-Up <#8>
    * Curiosity Bids Goodbye to Heat Shield <#9>
    * Pebble-Covered Martian Surface <#10>
    * NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Image <#11>
    * NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Image <#12>


PASADENA, Calif. -- Remarkable image sets from NASA's Curiosity rover
and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are continuing to develop the story of
Curiosity's landing and first days on Mars.

The images from Curiosity's just-activated navigation cameras, or
Navcams, include the rover's first self-portrait, looking down at its
deck from above. Another Navcam image set, in lower-resolution
thumbnails, is the first 360-degree view of Curiosity's new home in Gale
Crater. Also downlinked were two, higher-resolution Navcams providing
the most detailed depiction to date of the surface adjacent to the rover.

"These Navcam images indicate that our powered descent stage did more
than give us a great ride, it gave our science team an amazing freebie,"
said John Grotzinger, project scientist for the mission from the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The thrust from the
rockets actually dug a one-and-a-half-foot-long [0.5-meter] trench in
the surface. It appears we can see Martian bedrock on the bottom. Its
depth below the surface is valuable data we can use going forward."

Another image set, courtesy of the Context Camera, or CTX, aboard NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has pinpointed the final resting spots of
the six, 55-pound (25-kilogram) entry ballast masses. The tungsten
masses impacted the Martian surface at a high speed of about 7.5 miles
(12 kilometers) from Curiosity's landing location.

Curiosity's latest images are available at: http://1.usa.gov/MfiyD0 .

Wednesday, the team deployed the 3.6 foot-tall (1.1-meter) camera mast,
activated and gathered surface radiation data from the rover's Radiation
Assessment Detector and concluded testing of the rover's high-gain antenna.

Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as
large as the science payloads on NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and
Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for
checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of
their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop, which are
located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered
samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into
the rover's analytical laboratory instruments.

To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five
times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site
places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater's
interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and
sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) camera is operated by the University of Arizona in
Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
in Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Exploration
Rover projects are managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled
at JPL. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the orbiter.

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

Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

For more about NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

D.C. 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

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
                       
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

2012-235
Received on Wed 08 Aug 2012 06:24:37 PM PDT


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