The descent of MSL (Curiosity) captured by HiRISE
Date: 06 August 2012
Satellite: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Depicts: Curiosity
Copyright: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descended to the surface on 6 August 2012 (UTC). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image while the orbiter was listening to transmissions from Curiosity.
Curiosity and its parachute are in the centre of the white box. A separate image is a smaller cutout of Curiosity, which is also stretched to avoid saturation. The rover is landing on the etched plains just north of the sand dunes that fringe "Mt. Sharp" (Aeolis Mons).
The parachute of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission's Curiosity rover appears fully inflated and performing perfectly. Details in the parachute such as the band gap are clearly visible. The cords connecting the parachute to the back shell cannot be seen, although they were seen in the image of NASA's Phoenix descending, perhaps due to the difference in lighting angles and colour of the lines.
The image scale is 33.6 cm/pixel.
Source: NASA HiRISE website
