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The definitive version of Curiosity's first color panorama
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/23 06:15 CDT | 8 comments
The top of the mountain has finally been filled in, and Damien Bouic has produced what I think is the definitive version of Curiosity's first color panorama.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/22 07:01 CDT | 8 comments
A pretty picture of Cassini's current view of Saturn.
Curiosity sol 15 update: Wheel wiggles, arm flexes, and bad news about REMS
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/21 04:26 CDT | 8 comments
Notes from this morning's press conference. Curiosity has successfully steered the corner wheels and deployed and restowed the robotic arm. ChemCam tests went well over the weekend. But one of the two wind speed sensors in REMS appears to have suffered permanent damage during landing.
The first Curiosity 360-degree panorama including the mountain
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/18 10:45 CDT | 8 comments
Damien Bouic took Curiosity's Hazcam images of Aeolis Mons / Mount Sharp and merged them with a beautiful 360-degree Navcam panorama to give us our first look at what the view will look like once the mission finally gets higher-resolution images that include the mountain's peak.
Curiosity sol 11 update: Decision to drive to "the high thermal inertia unit" and what that means
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/17 06:06 CDT | 8 comments
Some notes from this morning's Curiosity press briefing: the rover will be driving to "Glenelg" to investigate the "high thermal inertia unit." I explain what that means, with psychedelic Odyssey THEMIS images of the landing site.
Some fun with Curiosity MARDI images
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/16 11:36 CDT | 9 comments
Yesterday Curiosity returned a pile of full-resolution descent imager photos to Earth. The full-resolution MARDI images are just as great as we anticipated.
Curiosity's Marsdial is on Mars!
Posted by Bill Nye on 2012/08/14 04:24 CDT | 6 comments
Following the successful landing of the Curiosity rover, it is gratifying indeed to see the third MarsDial© photometric calibration (cal) target on the planet Mars. It is something near and dear to me personally, and it's good for all of us, because it helps us do good science.
Pretty picture: Vesta's crater Aelia in high resolution
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/13 02:59 CDT | 3 comments
I think my favorite features on Vesta are its streaky craters. Today's image release shows one of the streakiest: Aelia, a little crater on the flank of a larger one, near Vesta's equator.
Curiosity sol 3: First Mastcam color thumbnails down, everything "flawless," "nominal"
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/09 03:25 CDT | 13 comments
Curiosity's third day on Mars has been completed flawlessly, and the first preliminary color view from her Mastcam is lovely.
Curiosity: Most of sol 2 Navcam panorama, plus 18 full-res Descent Imager frames available
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/09 12:48 CDT | 10 comments
A look at the latest raw data dump from Curiosity: our first sharp view of the rover and immediate surroundings, plus 18 of the full-resolution descent imager frames are now available. Check out the gravel on Curiosity's deck!!
Grab your 3D glasses for this view of Curiosity's landscape on Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/08 09:58 CDT | 4 comments
Curiosity fired up her Navigational Cameras on Sol 2 and began to take a look around her. The first four full-resolution frames are enough for a small 3D panorama that shows a lovely landscape. I think we're going to like it here!
First full-resolution MARDI frame: Bye-bye, heat shield
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/07 11:50 CDT | 11 comments
The thumbnail versions of the Mars Descent Imager images have shown up on the Curiosity raw images page, and hiding among them was a single full-resolution frame containing the heat shield.
Curiosity's MAHLI camera: Much more than a microscopic imager
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/07 06:19 CDT | 3 comments
Today's press briefing featured the first image from MAHLI, the Mars Hand Lens Imager, so it's time for me to dive in to this camera's capabilities.
First look at Curiosity MARDI's descent animation (WOW WOW)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/06 07:09 CDT | 5 comments
Even a preliminary, low-resolution, low-frame-rate version of Curiosity's descent imager animation of the arrival on Mars contains almost more awesome than I can stand.
A "long" view of the Curiosity Descending image
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/06 06:41 CDT | 2 comments
A wider (well, longer) view of the amazing HiRISE image that shows Curiosity descending under parachute to Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE has done it again!!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/06 10:42 CDT | 2 comments
In 2008, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped an amazing photo of Phoenix descending to the surface of Mars under its parachute. Now it's repeated the feat, with Curiosity.
Getting the most out of those first images from Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/06 09:25 CDT | 5 comments
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/06 05:19 CDT | 13 comments
Somehow, it worked. Curiosity has landed on Mars, returning photos of her wheels and her shadow on a flat, pebbled plain.
Pretty Panoramas: Opportunity at Whim Creek
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/07/30 01:11 CDT | 2 comments
I know it’s been all Curiosity, all the time on this blog for the last couple of weeks, and that’s not likely to change much for the next couple of weeks. But I don’t want people to forget that there’s another rover exploring Mars’ ancient geology. Opportunity has been taking spectacular photos of Whim Creek and Endeavour Crater this last week.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/07/05 12:01 CDT
As astronaut Don Pettit prepared for his return to Earth, he tweeted several beautiful shots from the Space Station.
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