Gale Crater

“This is an area on Mount Sharp where Curiosity will go”

Pete Baker on August 29, 2012, 7:37 pm

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More wondrous images from Nasa’s mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the 900kg rover Curiosity, now safely on the Martian surface in Gale Crater. And it’s only warming up its instruments. Here’s a panaroma of the landing site and the prime mission target, Mount Sharp. Focusing in on Mount Sharp… [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS] But the images that have attracted attention are from the telephoto lens [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS] As the Nasa press release notes The telephoto images beamed back to Earth show a …

Curiosity drops in on Mars – in Hi-res

Pete Baker on August 23, 2012, 9:50 pm

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Nasa’s mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the 900kg rover Curiosity, may have started roving on the surface of Mars, but there’s still room for more stunning video of its descent. In high-resolution. Audio from mission control can also be heard, counting down the critical events. Video from JPL News This movie from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows most of the high-resolution frames acquired by the Mars Descent Imager between the jettison of the heat shield and touchdown. Pete Baker

“Guess you could consider us the closest thing to paparazzi on Mars”

Pete Baker on August 7, 2012, 4:02 pm

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Another wondrous image from Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). This time the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard snapped the Red Planet’s “newest celebrity” – the Curiosity rover and its 51-foot-wide (almost 16 metre) parachute descending towards Gale Crater. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona] From the Nasa/JPL press release “If HiRISE took the image one second before or one second after, we probably would be looking at an empty Martian landscape,” said Sarah Milkovich, HiRISE investigation scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion …

Curiosity: “It’s like the Olympics for nerds!”

Pete Baker on August 5, 2012, 9:09 pm

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Just a quick reminder that, if everything goes to plan, Nasa’s mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the massive 900kg rover Curiosity, is scheduled to land on the red planet at 6.30am [BST] tomorrow morning. As the Curiosity Rover says itself It’s landing day & I’m hours from Mars! Watch my final @nasa prelanding briefing, Aug 5 9:30am PT (1630 UT) ustream.tv/nasajpl — Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 5, 2012 And from the Guardian’s Pass Notes No 3,223 Is it all going …