'Curiosity' Snaps a Self-Portrait...

 

         

 

The images from Curiosity's just-activated navigation cameras, or Navcams, include the rover's first self-portrait, looking down at its deck from above. Another Navcam image set, in lower-resolution thumbnails, is the first 360-degree view of Curiosity's new home in Gale Crater. Also downlinked were two, higher-resolution Navcams providing the most detailed depiction to date of the surface adjacent to the rover.

"These Navcam images indicate that our powered descent stage did more than give us a great ride, it gave our science team an amazing freebie," said John Grotzinger, project scientist for the mission from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The thrust from the rockets actually dug a one-and-a-half-foot-long [0.5-meter] trench in the surface. It appears we can see Martian bedrock on the bottom. Its depth below the surface is valuable data we can use going forward."

Another image set, courtesy of the Context Camera, or CTX, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has pinpointed the final resting spots of the six, 55-pound (25-kilogram) entry ballast masses. The tungsten masses impacted the Martian surface at a high speed of about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) from Curiosity's landing location.

Curiosity's latest images are available at: http://1.usa.gov/MfiyD0 .Wednesday, the team deployed the 3.6 foot-tall (1.1-meter) camera mast, activated and gathered surface radiation data from the rover's Radiation Assessment Detector and concluded testing of the rover's high-gain antenna.

Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on NASA's 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 are 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.

 

        

The Daily Galaxy via NASA

Comments

[asif]

they couldnt afford a colour camera?

[James]

While blowing up the first series of Curiosity images I came across something very intriguing!
Zoom in on the upper right portion of this image. Look to the left of the bright rock and you will see what appears to be something similar to the underside of a horseshoe crab shell.
I'm not saying that's what it is but it looks very similar!
It's disc shaped and has the "tooth-like" structures that are present at the back of a horseshoe crab's shell.
This could be a trick of light or an "artifact" as they say in the photography industry but it looks very different than objects in the surrounding area.
At any rate, I would like to see these photographs scrutinized very carefully after they hit the public eye AND NOT BEFORE!
Let's hope NASA won't keep things from the public when Curiosity finds some life form.
The taxpayers deserve to know!

Thanks
James

[smartypants]

Awww, dont be silly. Horse shoe crab indeed. Any blind fool can see its a trilobite.

And look at all the stones the martians have been throwing at it. Bad bad martians. You could put a rovers eye out doing that!

And lastly to asif
I seem to remember reading some wheres they prefer black and white for the contrast but I agree with you, color cameras rule.

[Gaugain]

http://www.universetoday.com/96656/curiosity-beams-1st-color-image-from-mars/ so this means we`ll have colour pictures later , in a few days. The rover has many cameras, some for navigation, some for other missions.

[Greg]

I believe the photography camera is color and HD. It can also record HD video :) I can't wait for some vids from Mars!