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NASA Releases HiRISE Images of Curiosity's Descent

Posted by Unknown on from the in-space-everything-is-awesome dept.

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.

16 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Fantastic! by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nice shot. And kudos to the folks who painted the white square on the surface of Mars. If only the people who striped our freeways could have done such a good job.

    --
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  2. Freaking incredible. by Bitsy+Boffin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just think about this a moment. NASA took a photo from a satellite, of a probe landing on another planet. And they got telemetry relayed about the landing from ANOTHER satellite.

    And it's not just a bright pixel, you can clearly see what it is.

    Stunning.

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    1. Re:Freaking incredible. by gcnaddict · · Score: 5, Interesting
      You're not the first to think that, either. The same message was conveyed by the BadAstronomy blog when the same such shot was released from Phoenix.

      Think on this, and think on it carefully: you are seeing a manmade object falling gracefully and with intent to the surface of an alien world, as seen by another manmade object already circling that world, both of them acting robotically, and both of them hundreds of million of kilometers away.

      Never, ever forget: we did this. This is what we can do.

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    2. Re:Freaking incredible. by SomeJoel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But there will always be pathetic yahoos who, out of some desire to make themselves feel important will deny our species' technical abilities.

      Yes, and they will post about it on the Internet without ever sensing the irony.

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    3. Re:Freaking incredible. by MachDelta · · Score: 5, Funny

      It turns out that space is in metric. Who knew?

    4. Re:Freaking incredible. by Swampash · · Score: 5, Informative

      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)

    5. Re:Freaking incredible. by GNUALMAFUERTE · · Score: 5, Funny

      All of space, including most of planet earth. Well, except for some very uneducated areas ;)

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    6. Re:Freaking incredible. by the+gnat · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    7. Re:Freaking incredible. by MtViewGuy · · Score: 5, Informative

      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)

    8. Re:Freaking incredible. by Swampash · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I noticed that the White House called this "a great day for America", "a great day for this nation", etc. Repeat ad nauseam.

      Would it really have killed them to say "a great day for humanity"? I don't think Americans would have minded.

      As a non-American that's the sort of thing that normally makes me cringe. But you know what? Today I don't give a fuck. NASA has to beg for every cent it gets from the Federal govt and anything NASA does to justify the money it gets is fine by me today.

      As a space geek I totally understand why this sort of language is getting used. It's marketing. NASA has to sell this sort of stuff to Bubba the Taxpayer. Bubba don't care about searching for life on other planets. All that science shit is for the nerds Bubba used to bully in highschool. But label it AMERICA KICKING ASS and all of a sudden Bubba does care, and you better believe he's in favor of it.

      Turn the whole fucking event into an ad for NASA with a tagline of "AMERICA FUCK YEAH" and then see if either of the Presidential candidates dares go into an election promising to cut space funding. I'll grin and bear it.

  3. Photography has come a long way by lemur3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think something missed in all of this is how powerful imagery is.

    Imagine a world without photographs ?

    This mission, and ones before it.. highlight how important this invention, photography, is.

    We have photographs of this on its chute landing.. this is the second time we've done it.. and we got photographs back as soon as it landed.. This is great... and the excitement of the crew, and the public, upon seeing these images is a testament to how far photography has come in the past 150ish years.

    Kudos to all of those who made this happen.. for the science it will do.. and further affirming the power of images in our world..

  4. Re:Too cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 :-(.

  5. Cheap Mission by ThePeices · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Cheap Mission by radio4fan · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

  6. Re:Too cool by poly_pusher · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't care what it costs, I want a drill sent to Europa...

    Remember, all American's can have an impact on that decision. I was all for a reduction in manned space travel expenditures and ending the money pit that was the shuttle program "Thanks Nixon!" However, I was under the impression that they surely would not impose cuts to NASA and JPL's hugely successful unmanned missions. The things Nasa has accomplished over the past 15 years with rover's, probes, and telescopes is astonishing.

    Nope, you're not alone...

  7. Re:Too cool by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why spend 2.5 billion on NASA when you can buy a few more Solyndra's.

    Why spend 2.5 billion on NASA when you can buy one B2 stealth bomber?

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    Drill baby drill - on Mars