You are here: Home › News › Space › First 3-D images from Curiosity
First 3-D images from Curiosity
On its first Martian day, the rover has been self-checking its health and so far all activities appear to be completely nominal. Approximately five megabytes of data were successfully relayed back to Earth from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter during its overpass today.
Activities planned for the mission’s approximately one-month characterization activity phase include deploying Curiosity’s high-gain antenna, collecting science data from Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment Detector and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station instruments, and obtaining additional imagery. The mission’s characterization activity phase is design to learn how all Curiosity’s subsystems and instruments are functioning after landing and within the environment and gravitational field of Mars.
The above image shows a 3-D view in front of the Curiosity rover. The image was made from a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance Cameras on the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, a peak that is about 5.5 kilometers high, is visible rising above the terrain, though in one “eye” a box on the rover holding the drill bits obscures the view.
The above image is a 3-D view behind the Curiosity rover. Part of the rim of Gale Crater (about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined) stretches from the top middle to the top right of the image. One of the rover’s wheels can be seen at bottom right. The bright spot is saturation from the sun.
The four main pieces of hardware used during the Curiosity rover’s descent were spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The large, reduced-scale image points out the strewn hardware: the heat shield was the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down, and finally, after cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest. Relatively dark areas in all four spots are from disturbances of the bright dust on Mars, revealing the darker material below the surface dust. Around the rover, this disturbance was from the sky crane thrusters, and forms a bilaterally symmetrical pattern.
Related:
Discuss this article in our forum
Orbiter captures Curiosity’s descent
Curiosity Live: countdown to Mars landing
Mars Rover Snapped From Orbit
Meteorite Indicates Mars Had Oceans
NASA JPL - MARS 2020 PERSEVERANCE ROVER - Exploration Program Mission PATCH
$12.00
1 MARS MEI BEZEL bill acceptor BEZEL KIT # 03 PN 250027095 2631/2431 buy more$
$19.95
Mars Soft Glass Water Pipe
$45.99
mars mei ae 2601 u 7 115 bill acceptor new money 2024 1/20 for american changer
$299.00
Funko Pop Sailor Moon Sailor Mars #92
$34.99
SpaceShots Moon Mars 36 *Embossed* 1991 Boxed Card Set New Space Ventures 🚀
$10.00
Commies from Mars: The Red Planet: The Collected Works First Printing 1986
$31.99
NM- 9.2 MARS 1 Mark Wheatley, Marc Hempel Sci-Fi, Bag&Bd New 1984 Combined Shpg
$2.92
Talisman Pentacle of Mars Solomon Seal Pendant kabbalah Hermetic Jewelry
$19.99
Mars TRC6800H SINGLE PRICE 117V COIN MECH COIN ACCEPTOR *COMPLETELY REBUILT*
$199.99
Comments are closed.