First video captures Curiosity's descent onto Mars

Gilead Amit, contributor

Wonder what the view was like as Curiosity descended onto Mars? Now the first video reveals the approach in stop-motion, capturing the last two-and-a-half minutes of the journey.

The clip was created by stitching together 297 images taken by the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI), a fixed-focus colour camera attached to the side of the rover. It begins with the rover's heat shield falling off at a height of 8 kilometres above the Martian surface. This allowed the craft to reorient itself and begin its descent to the landing site on Gale Crater. After a brief period of freefall, eight thrusters come into action, kicking up spectacular clouds of dust as the craft slowed from nearly 290 km/h to barely 2.7 km/h. Four of the rockets then shut off, allowing the sky crane to slowly lower Curiosity for its final 20 metres to the Red Planet.

Although the view is rather grainy, a higher-resolution video will soon be released, also using images captured by MARDI. A couple of additional images from MARDI appear below, the first showing the heat shield shortly after it separated, the second showing a close-up on landing.

(Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

If you enjoyed this post, watch a visualisation of Curiosity's mission or check out a simulator that shows what walking is like in Martian gravity.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/22223f50/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cnstv0C20A120C0A80Cfirst0Evideo0Ecaptures0Ecuriositys0Edescent0Eonto0Emars0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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