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MSL Curiosity Heatshield meets the surface of Mars.

Captured by the downward facing mars Descent Imager Instrument (MARDI) the (rather large, in fact larger than the Apollo) Heatshield impacts the surface of Mars.

There are MUCH more hi res images to come from this instrument (I think in the region of 1600x1100 @ 5 fps, roughly) which is really going to be a sight to behold.

Not to mention the continuing adventures of the Rover on the surface.

A great mission that is all too rare these days.

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Added: Aug-18-2012 
By: gnark1ll
In: World News, Science and Technology
Tags: msl, curiosoity, NASA, JPL, Mars, heatshield, MARDI
Marked as: approved
Views: 1187 | Comments: 8 | Votes: 3 | Favorites: 0 | Shared: 0 | Updates: 0 | Times used in channels: 2
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  • Great, we're already polluting another planet, with our junk.









    J/K! Go NASA. You're sexy, and ya know it.

    Posted Aug-18-2012 By 
    Blue3tar (497.00)  

    (2)

    • @Blue3tar Hey joke I know, but its definitely an issue.

      They do all they can to minimise it, such as crashing Gallileo so it wouldnt hit a moon, because that probe did not go through the intense cleaning that the surface probes get.

      On the positive side, these impacts do allow the scientists to get a look at layers of soil they other wise would not, and also can tell them about the properties fo the soil it hit.

      So you have to take the rough with the smooth I guess.

      Posted Aug-18-2012 By 
      gnark1ll (549.66)  

      (0)

  • thanks!

    Posted Aug-18-2012 By 
    marc1921 (1478.96)  

    (1)

    • @marc1921 My pleasure.

      I know its not great quality (much better to come) but its the idea of what we are seeing isnt it?

      This is all firsts in interplanetary spaceflight, getting shots of the descent and landing on another world.

      At least some of us appreciate these thumbnails anyway : D

      Posted Aug-18-2012 By 
      gnark1ll (549.66)  

      (1)

  • Comment of user 'MrScabs' has been deleted by author!

    • @MrScabs They will send the hi-res version in a few months once they ramp up the upload bandwidth.

      I think maxed out Odyssey can handle 5mb, and MSL supports it, but they are taking it easy in the early days. We are just getting thumbnails at the moment because of this.

      Posted Aug-18-2012 By 
      gnark1ll (549.66)  

      (0)

    • Comment of user 'MrScabs' has been deleted by author!

    • @MrScabs Yeah its all a relay.

      MSL is capable of communicating directly with the Earth, but mainly for commands and software upgrades. It mainly uses orbiting probes (Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Recon Observer) for the really high rates of data transfer.

      Like you say, when you start to find out how they are dealing with data return, using this relay system, the problems they face are really head spinning.

      So MSL itself can communicate with Earth if Earth is within its line of sight, with v More..

      Posted Aug-18-2012 By 
      gnark1ll (549.66)  

      (0)