Mars in first color image sent back by Curiosity.
New images returned from NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars
Sunday evening, show a three-dimensional view from the rover's left and
right front Hazard Avoidance cameras.
Curiosity's rear left and right Hazard Avoidance cameras acquire
black-and-white pictures from
left and right stereo "eyes," which are
merged to provide three-dimensional information.
During Curiosity's spectacular technical landing on Mars Sunday night,
the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) required the rover to jettison
hardware as it completed each phase of the operation.
In this
wide view of the landing area, taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter, we can see the four main pieces of equipment, captured by the
High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera about 24 hours after
landing.
The darker areas in all four debris spots are from
disturbances of the bright dust on Mars, revealing the darker material
below the surface dust.
During Curiosity's descent, the lens cover on the rover's camera got
covered with a thin film of dust. Here, we see a comparison between the
dust coated lens on the left and the lens after the protective covering
was removed. The Hazard Avoidance camera, or Hazcam, took this image of
Mount Sharp in the distance on August 6, 2012.
Curiosity's parachute and back shell are seen on the surface of Mars in
this image captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment
camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter about 24 hours after the
parachute helped gently set the rover on the surface. When the back
shell hit the ground, bright dust was kicked up, exposing darker
material underneath.
This close-up view shows Curiosity's heat shield, center, which helped
the rover survive the harrowing journey through the martian atmosphere,
on the surface of Mars, captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter about 24 hours
after landing.
The impact of Curiosity's sky crane, which helped deliver the rover to
the surface of Mars by lowering it the final 20 feet on a tether,
exposed the darker material underneath the surface dust when it landed
after being jettisoned away from the rover.
This picture of the martian landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover puts a
color view obtained by the rover in the context of a computer
simulation derived from images acquired by orbiting spacecraft. The view
looks north, showing a distant ridge that is the north wall and rim of
Gale Crater.
The color image was obtained by Curiosity's Mars
Hand Lens Imager on August 6 PT, the first martian day after Curiosity's
landing on August 5 PT. It has been rendered about 10 percent
transparent so scientists can see how it matches the simulated terrain
in the background. The MAHLI image was taken while the camera's
transparent dust cover was still on. Curiosity's descent coated the
cover with a thin film of dust.
The computer simulation is a
digital elevation model that incorporates data from the High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment and Context Camera on NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter and the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA's
Mars Express.
The peak seen on the left side of the MAHLI image
is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) distant with a height of about 3,775
feet (1,150 meters). The box with arrows at the upper left indicates
direction. The arrow pointing up is "up" with respect to the gravity of
Mars. The arrow pointing to the right is east. North would be an arrow
pointing into the image (that is, the MAHLI view is toward the north).
The
MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm.
At the time the MAHLI image was acquired, the robotic arm was in its
stowed position. It has been stowed since the rover was packaged for its
November 26, 2011, launch.
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." Here, 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 U.S.
The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to
acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover's
Gale Crater field site. The camera is capable of focusing on any target
at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity. This
means it can, as shown here, also obtain pictures of the Martian
landscape. This was the first time the MAHLI focus mechanism was
operated since before launch and it performed flawlessly.
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