Curiosity Rover Spotted on Mars

Nasa  used one of its satellites to image the Curiosity rover on Mars. The picture shows not only the six-wheeled vehicle, but also all the components of its discarded landing system. These items include the heatshield, the parachute and backshell of the entry capsule and the skycrane that lowered the rover to the surface. The image was acquired by the Mars Reconnaissance Oribter from 300km and at an oblique angle of 41 degrees.

A signal confirming the Curiosity rover (also known as the Mars Science Lab, MSL) had landed on Mars was received here at mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 05:32 GMT; 06:32 BST on Monday (22:32 PDT Sunday). The robot put down at the base of a deep depression known as Gale Crater. The first hours on the surface have been spent checking out the health of the vehicle and retrieving some early engineering pictures that tell the mission team about the location where Curiosity landed.

• (A) Curiosity will trundle around its landing site looking for interesting rock features to study. Its top speed is about 4cm/s
• (B) This mission has 17 cameras. They will identify particular targets, and a laser will zap those rocks to probe their chemistry
• (C) If the signal is significant, Curiosity will swing over instruments on its arm for close-up investigation. These include a microscope
• (D) Samples drilled from rock, or scooped from the soil, can be delivered to two hi-tech analysis labs inside the rover body
• (E) The results are sent to Earth through antennas on the rover deck. Return commands tell the rover where it should drive next