Curiosity's Descent Video in Amazing, Incredible HD Quality

By Nancy Atkinson - August 22, 2012 04:11 PM UTC | Planetary Science

It keeps getting better! This is a full-resolution version of the NASA Curiosity rover descent to Mars, taken by the MARDI descent imager. This video, put together by

Daniel Luke Fitch,

uses all but a dozen of the full resolution 1600x1200 frames (some haven't been uploaded from the rover yet). The result is a mind-blowing, HD view of Curiosity's view as it landed -- and it also shows the best views yet of the heat shield impact. Wow!

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com