Hello All!   
      
   NASA's Curiosity Rover Caught in the Act of Landing    
      
   August 6, 2012: An image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment   
   (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance orbiter captured the   
   Curiosity rover still connected to its 51-foot-wide (almost 16 meter)   
   parachute as it descended towards its landing site at Gale Crater.    
      
   http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15978b.html   
      
   Curiosity and its parachute are in the center of the white box; the inset   
   image is a cutout of the rover stretched to avoid saturation. Image credit:   
   NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona    
      
   "If HiRISE took the image one second before or one second after, we probably   
   would be looking at an empty Martian landscape," said Sarah Milkovich, HiRISE   
   investigation scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,   
   Calif. "When you consider that we have been working on this sequence since   
   March and had to upload commands to the spacecraft about 72 hours prior to the   
   image being taken, you begin to realize how challenging this picture was to   
   obtain."    
      
   The image was taken while MRO was 211 miles (340 kilometers) away from the   
   parachuting rover. Curiosity and its rocket-propelled backpack, contained   
   within the conical-shaped back shell, had yet to be deployed. At the time,   
   Curiosity was about two miles (three kilometers) above the Martian surface.    
      
   "Guess you could consider us the closest thing to paparazzi on Mars," said   
   Milkovich. "We definitely caught NASA's newest celebrity in the act."    
      
   Curiosity, NASA's latest contribution to the Martian landscape, landed at   
   10:32 p.m. Aug. 5, PDT, (1:32 on Aug. 6, EDT) near the foot of a mountain   
   three miles tall inside Gale Crater, 96 miles in diameter.    
      
   http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15981.html   
      
   The green diamond shows approximately where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on   
   Mars, a region about 2 kilometers northeast of its target in the center of the   
   estimated landing region (blue ellipse)    
      
   In other Curiosity news, one part of the rover team at the JPL continues to   
   analyze the data from last night's landing while another continues to prepare   
   the one-ton mobile laboratory for its future explorations of Gale Crater. One   
   key assignment given to Curiosity for its first full day on Mars is to raise   
   its high-gain antenna. Using this antenna will increase the data rate at which   
   the rover can communicate directly with Earth. The mission will use relays to   
   orbiters as the primary method for sending data home, because that method is   
   much more energy-efficient for the rover.    
      
   More images are coming. To find out what to expect, click here.    
      
   http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120803.html   
      
      
   Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
      
   More Information    
   This mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in   
   Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. JPL is a   
   division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.    
      
   For more information on the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars and   
   http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .    
      
   Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebo   
   k.com/marscuriosity And http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .    
       
      
   Regards,   
      
   Roger    
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LA - (1:3828/7)