Sol 1 Monday 7th August

Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Image of Curiosity Descent.

Good news from ChemCam PI Roger Wiens ‘All Systems are Go’.  The 2 m high mast will be raised on Sol 2 with ChemCam and the main stereo camera on it of course. Our first images of Mt. Sharp and the gravel floor of Gale Crater are coming through but soon we will be improving on these early pictures. 

The star image so far for me is the HiRise image taken from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity was coming down by parachute.   The resolution (25 cm/pixel) is high enough for detail on the parachute and conical aeroshell to be visible. The description ‘iconic’ is overused, but in this case it is right I think as it shows what has been achieved by  JPL-NASA Mars exploration combining orbiters and a lander to great effect. 

As w get more MARDI (descent) and HiRise images over the next few days we will be able to pinpoint our landing spot.

The first (low resolution) version of the MARDI descent imagery is now online at

http://1.usa.gov/MZqGxv

I am starting to get used to converting Earth time to Mars time, which our timetables are based on.