Space Topics: Mars Exploration Rovers
The Year in Pictures: 2005
Opportunity Studies Its Heat Shield and Finds a Meteorite
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell |
January 2: Nearly an Earth year after landing on Mars, the Mars
Exploration Rover Opportunity approached the wreckage of the heat shield that had protected
its fiery entry
into the Martian atmosphere on January 24, 2004. Engineers
were astonished to figure out that the part of the heat shield pictured here
had actually everted -- turned inside out -- upon impact. Opportunity
spent several days applying its science
instruments to the study of the wreckage,
returning data on the performance of the heat shield that could help improve
the design of future Mars landers. And the journey to the heat shield
yielded a bonus: the discovery of the first meteorite ever identified on a
planet other than Earth. The
holey iron meteorite is visible over the left side of the heat shield in this
picture. In subsequent days Opportunity drove over to the meteorite
for closer examination.
Impact site of Opportunity's heat shield
In the foreground, a bright "splat" marks the site where Opportunity's heat shield crashed to the surface of Mars. The force of impact broke the heat shield into several layers. The interior layer, on the left, inverted upon impact so that its shiny aluminum side is visible. In the center lie crumpled bits of the outer portion of the heat shield. This panorama was captured as Opportunity approached the site on sol 330 (December 28, 2004).
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell
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Iron meteorite on Mars
This meteorite, about the size of a basketball, was discovered by Opportunity near the wreckage of its heat shield and investigated on sol 339 (January 6, 2005).
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell
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