Orbiter Images NASA's Martian Landscape Additions

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
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Guy Webster/D.C. Agle 818-354-6278/818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov

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

News release: 2012-234 August 7, 2012

Orbiter Images NASA's Martian Landscape Additions

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-234&cid=release_2012-234

PASADENA, Calif. – Late Monday night, an image from the High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the Curiosity
rover and the components that helped it survive its seven-minute ordeal from space to its present
location in Mars' Gale Crater.

"This latest image is another demonstration of the invaluable assistance the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter team, and its sister team with the Mars Odyssey orbiter, have provided the Curiosity rover
during our early days on the Red Planet," said Mike Watkins, mission manager for the Mars Science
Laboratory mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The image not only
satisfies our curiosity, it can provide important information on how these vital components performed
during entry, descent and landing, and exactly locate the rover's touchdown site within Gale Crater."

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's image of Curiosity and its parachute, back shell, heat shield and
descent stage can be found at: http://go.nasa.gov/OXjKz6 .

The Curiosity rover is in the center of the image. To the right, approximately 4,900 feet (1,500
meters) away, lies the heat shield, which protected the rover from 3,800-degree-Fahrenheit (about
2,100 degrees Celsius) temperatures encountered during its fiery descent. On the lower left, about
2,020 feet (615 meters) away, are the parachute and back shell. The parachute has a constructed
diameter of 71 feet (almost 21.5 meters) and an inflated diameter of 51 feet (nearly 16 meters). The
back shell remains connected to the chute via 80 suspension lines that are 165 feet (50 meters) long.
To the upper-left, approximately 2,100 feet (650 meters) away from the rover, is a discoloration of
the Mars surface consistent with what would have resulted when the rocket-powered Sky Crane
impacted the surface.

"This is the first of what I imagine will be many portraits HiRISE will be taking of Curiosity on the
surface of Mars," said Sarah Milkovich, HiRISE investigation scientist at JPL. "The image was taken
Monday at about 10:30 p.m. Pacific when MRO was at an altitude of about 186 miles (300
kilometers), and we are getting resolution on the surface down to 1.3 feet (39 centimeters) per pixel."

As more of Curiosity's instruments are coming online, more "first images" are being downlinked
from the rover's 17 cameras. The latest to come in is from the Mars Hand Lens Imager or MAHLI.
The focusable color camera is located on the tool-bearing turret at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm.
Researchers will use it for magnified, close-up views of rocks and soils and also for wider scenes of
the ground, the landscape or even the rover.

"It is great to have our first MAHLI image under our belt," said Ken Edgett, principal investigator for
MAHLI from Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. "We tested the focus mechanism and
imager and the whole system is looking good. We are looking forward to getting up close and
personal with Mars."

The first MAHLI image, taken with the dust-coated clear plastic cover over the lens, is available at:
http://go.nasa.gov/Qb3l6U .

The team plans for Curiosity checkout Tuesday include raising the rover's mast and continued testing
of the high-gain antenna.

Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on
the 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 is 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.

HiRISE 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 information on NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars and
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl . For more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mro . Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

-end-



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