NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity has successfully landed in the Gale Crater on Mars. The one-ton rover touched down onto the Red Planet early Monday to begin a two-year investigation.
First images taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover, colorized (NASA / JPL-Caltech)
President Obama said the landing “will stand as a point of national pride far into the future.”
These are the first images taken by the rover, which landed on Mars the morning of Aug. 6, 2012. They were taken through a ‘fisheye’ wide-angle lens on rover’s rear cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The clear dust cover on cameras is still on in these views.
As planned, the rover’s early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images are expected later in the week when the rover’s mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed.
Geological diversity at Curiosity’s landing site (NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU)
The area where NASA’s Curiosity rover landed has a geological diversity that scientists are eager to investigate, as seen in this false-color map based on data from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.
