NASA Releases HiRISE Images of Curiosity's Descent

gcnaddict writes "NASA released content from the MRO HiRISE imager taken during the descent of the Curiosity Rover. Among the most notable artifacts are the images themselves as well as a diagram showing the exact location of the rover relative to NASA's target." Update: 08/07 00:15 GMT by U L : And now for a picture from the rover itself.

Comments

Image sources

[Ryanrule]

Tiff images

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/

XML source file for day 0

http://landingimagecatalog-1450153822.us-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com/landing/images_sol0.xml

Re:Too cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, things are going the other way. NASA's unmanned space budget is being cut.

The Obama administration plans to massively cut funding for NASA’s planetary exploration program. Zubrin writes that Obama’s 2013 budget would permit the continuation of a couple of projects—the MAVEN orbiter and the Mars Science Curiosity Lab—but would otherwise leave planetary exploration without much of a budget. The space astronomy program, too, faces deep cuts.

The overall NASA budget is similar, but unmanned probes and robotic science budgets have been savaged :-(.

Re:Freaking incredible.

[Swampash]

We've got some damn fine people working on this.
And a lot of them will be looking for work after the next round of NASA budget cuts - no matter who wins the next election.

NASA's budget as a fraction of federal spending is 0.48%. That's the lowest it's been since 1960. And it's getting smaller.

Dig on this:

Curiosity project budget: USD 2.5 billion

Cost of "War on Terror" so far: USD 1.36 trillion and counting (yes that's one thousand three hundred and sixty billion)

Re:I don't quite get

[Chuck Chunder]

"The Curiosity Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) captured the rover's descent to the surface of the Red Planet. The instrument shot 4 fps video from heatshield separation to the ground." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGMDXy-Y1I

Cheap Mission

[ThePeices]

What amazes me is how cheap the entire MSL mission is...

The entire budget was only 4 days in Iraq/Afghanistan, or approx USD$2.5billion.

NASA's entire budget is less than what the US Army spends on air-conditioning in Iraq/Afghanistan ( USD$20 billion ).

I. Kid. You. Not.

Re:Cheap Mission

[Anonymous Coward]

http://costsofwar.org/article/education-universities-iraq-and-us/

When I was being a vocal critic of the war in 2003, it never ceased to amaze me how little of conditions in Iraq Americans actually knew...

Re:Cheap Mission

[radio4fan]

And which mission is the one trying to prevent another entire generation in that region from falling under the control of a bunch of medieval-minded religious thugs...

Neither. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have exactly as much to do with women, education and religious freedom as they have to do with exploring Mars.

Which is to say, nothing at all.

Re:Freaking incredible.

[the gnat]

Director Bolden, on his meeting with Obama on NASA strategy, mission: " ...perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering."

This was one throwaway line by a federal bureaucrat in a single substance-free interview, where he was obviously trying to pander to his audience. (And the White House very quickly corrected him, as has been pointed out previously.) Do you really believe that anything NASA has done since then has been designed to further this supposed goal? Please, explain how the Curiosity mission has been corrupted to soothe the feelings of Muslims.

Re:Freaking incredible.

[MtViewGuy]

What is totally amazing about that image is not only do you clearly see the shading of the parachute itself, but you also see _in the same picture_ the protective heat shield cover falling away from the lander, too. In short, one of the most amazing images ever produced by NASA. (thumbs up)

Re:Too cool

[FussionMan]

Write your local politician to change this. Just a few letters make a huge difference.

Re:Too cool

[MobileC]

Write your local politician to change this. Just a few letters make a huge difference.

Our local politicians have no influence in the affairs of a foreign nation.

Re:Too cool

[SilenceBE]

Remember, all American's can have an impact on that decision.

But may I ask - as a European - how you could do that ? It doesn't seem that you can vote on the other guy because from my POV he seems worse then Obama regarding science. And politicians have the habit - once they are in power - not to listen to the public anymore.

We had him for a couple of days here in Europe and the general consensus was that he remind us a lot of Bush junior and that there is potential that he gets your country in another expensive war. The money will need to come from somewhere and the guy didn't come over as particularly bright or somebody who likes intellectual challenges which science provoke.

Re:Too cool

[Sean Riordan]

Ugh ....
Maryland - Goddard Space Flight Center
New Mexico - AF Research Lab - Space Vehicles, Sandia Labs, Los Alamos Labs
Colorado - Ball, Raytheon, etc
California - JPL, Livermore Labs and way too many others to list
Virginia - Navy Research Lab, Wallops Island
Texas - UT Dallas, Texas A&M, Johnson Space Center, many more
Arizona - Orbital Sciences Corp., GD, etc
Tennessee - Oakridge
Alabama - U.S. Space and Rocket Center
Utah -Space Dynamics Laboratory, L3
Florida - Kennedy, ATK and many more
Alaska - Kodiak Island

The space industry is spread out over the entire country. This list could go on and on. Saying it is only Florida and Texas that benefit is mildly absurd. I agree with the idea, but it isn't nearly as narrow as that.