News & Analysis
Updated: NASA releases first color image from Curiosity
George Leopold
8/7/2012 2:35 PM EDT
WASHINGTON – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has released the first, murky color image from its Curiosity rover showing the north wall and rim of Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed early Monday (Aug. 6).
The first color image from Gale Crater (Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems)
The dust cover will be removed in the coming weeks so that the camera can be used to inspect Curiosity’s robotic arm.
The camera is located at the end of the robotic arm, which remains in its stowed position.
The Mahli camera will eventually be used to capture close-up, high-resolution pictures of rocks and soil at the Gale Crater landing site.
JPL also released a “linearized” version of an early image taken by Curiosity’s front, left hazard avoidance camera showing Mount Sharp, the 3.4-mile tall peak at the center of Gale Crater. The linearized image removes distortion in the inspection camera’s fish-eye lens.
Curiosity rover's view of Mount Sharp (Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Curiosity will eventually drive to Mount Sharp to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think contain clues to past environmental changes on Mars.
Late Tuesday (Aug. 7), NASA also released a satellite image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the impact locations of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft systems. These include the sky crane that flew up and away from Curiosity immediately after lowering it to the surface, the spacecraft heat shield and the hypersonic parachute that slowed the spacecraft's descent to the surface.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sent back this image of the impact points of Mars Science Laboratory systems near Curiosity's landing site. (Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
Related story:
Curiosity's bold engineers delivered the goods
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ReneCardenas
8/7/2012 4:28 PM EDT
Neat, for a sec I was feeling dissapointed of the quality of the picture, then all makes sense.
It is necessary to protect optics until all dust picked up from descent has settled down. Very smart indeed, we are waitting with excitment for the follow up images...
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george.leopold
8/7/2012 5:38 PM EDT
JPL managers have said they will take it's time bringing up different Curiosity systems, noting that the rover is a "precious national resource."
We'll be seeing Gale Crater in high-def soon enough.
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george.leopold
8/8/2012 12:28 PM EDT
NASA/JPL reports that Curiosity's mast containing its seven of the rover's 17 cameras has been successfully deployed.
View the first picture taken from the mast here:
https://twitter.com/#!/search/?q=%23MSL&src=hash
A press briefing on the status of Curiosity is scheduled for 10 a.m. PDT
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george.leopold
8/8/2012 2:22 PM EDT
Highlights from today's (8/8) Curiosity briefing:
-All rover antennas and links are deployed and working "perfectly"
-100 Mbytes relayed back to Earth during Sol 2 (second day on the Martian surface)
-Surface temperature at Gale Crater a little warmer than expected.
-a 360-degree panorama of the landing site is expected to be taken on Sol 3
-Rocket motors on sky crane provided some "free trenching" of the surface that exposed bedrock. "We've already got an exploration hole drilled for us," said John Grotzinger, JPL project scientist
-Official landing time for Curiosity at Gale Crater was 10:17 p.m. PDT, but signal was not received on Earth until about 10:32 p.m. PDT.
-JPL image managers showed an image of a line of small impact craters made by ballast weights dropped before touchdown that were used to leverage the lander's angle of attack during descent. There are no plans to drive to these spots.
Much more to come.
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george.leopold
8/8/2012 7:15 PM EDT
Good piece in Nature on the future of planetary exploration:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v488/n7410/full/488129b.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20120809
Bottom line: Unless NASA gets a budget increase, Curiosity is likely to be the last U.S. rover to land on Mars for the foreseeable future.
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seaEE
8/8/2012 11:16 PM EDT
Looking forward to more photos, and this got me wondering: how long might the Curiosity outlive its official mission life?
And how far could it travel? In theory, if there were no major obstacles, like the Grand Canyon of Mars, could it travel to one of the poles (and what is its top speed?), or will its mission be lived out entirely in the crater area?
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BillsBlots
8/9/2012 10:14 AM EDT
Great updates, thanks. I haven't exhausted every resource by any means, but doesn't Curiosity have a "nuclear" power source instead of solar panels? I've looked around a bit but haven't found much on it, considering this is a remarkable difference from previous space craft or 'rovers'.
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