Heat Shield Away!

Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Mars, Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)

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The Mars Descent Imager camera captured this remarkable moment: the heat shield separating and falling away from the spacecraft that carried the Curiosity rover as it descended to the surface. There are flying saucers, but they came from Earth to Mars, not the other way around.

NASA/JP/MSSS

This image is in the public domain. Original image data dated on or about August 6, 2012

Comments:

hugo pacilio: 04/10/2013 10:11 CDT

I saw the original high definition video is chilling and the descent of a Mars rover Curiosity, those final three minutes was beautiful while the rover descended, looked to shield totemic and disappearing while descending, almost out of sight.