Two New Videos Show Curiosity's Touchdown and Heat Shield Hitting Mars

By Nancy Atkinson - August 18, 2012 at 1:50 PM UTC | Planetary Science
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Wow, this is better than any theatrical movies of fictional ships landing on Mars, because this is REAL! The images and videos from the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) camera on the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft keep getting more amazing as the science team goes through their data and refines all the awesome action events from landing that the camera was able to capture. The video above is from a sequence of images which shows Curiosity's heat shield slamming into the surface and raising a cloud of dust!! MARDI took the images while the rover was still suspended on a parachute and, of course, after the spacecraft had jettisoned the heat shield.

We also have a full resolution color MARDI image below which was sent to us by Rolf Wahl Olsen, pointing out where the heat shield is sitting on the surface.

And another great video below is of Curiosity gently touching down on Mars. This was also taken by MARDI and is a higher resolution version that what was previously available. MARDI is on the bottom of the rover, so you see the surface of Mars coming up at you, and then see the dust swirling as the sky crane's rocket thrusters blasted the Mars regolith. Additionally, on the descent, one of the rover's wheel's comes into view as it unfolds in preparation for landing! Awesome!

UPDATE: (Aug. 19)

This video was put together by

Doug Ellison

of

UnmannedSpaceflight.com,

which shows Curiosity's entire descent, starting with the heat shield jettison until touchdown and provides a "smoother" view of the entire landing:

Caption: High resolution image from MARDI of Curiosity's descent. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

Click on the image for a larger version, or see the original raw version here. "It's the little back irregular spot in the middle near the bottom edge," Olsen said. "It's not in the image before that, and it fits perfectly with the 'crime scene' photo released earlier," which you can

see here.

If you look closely, the impact crater is even visible in this image!

Nancy Atkinson

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