Mars rover transmits landing video

Nasa’s Curiosity rover has transmitted a low-resolution video showing the last 150 seconds ofits dive through the Mars atmosphere, giving Earthlings a sneak peek of a spacecraft landing onanother world.As thumbnails of the video flashed on a big screen, scientists and engineers at the Nasa JetPropulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, let out “oohs” and “aahs”.The recording began with the protective heat shield falling away and ended with dust beingkicked up as the rover was lowered by cables inside an ancient crater.It was a sneak preview since it will take some time before full-resolution frames are beamedback depending on other priorities.The full video “will just be exquisite”, said Michael Malin, the chief scientist of the instrument.Nasa celebrated the precision landing of a rover on Mars and marvelled over the mission’sflurry of photographs – grainy black-and-white images of Martian gravel, a mountain at sunsetand, most exciting of all, the spacecraft’s white-knuckle plunge through the red planet’satmosphere.Curiosity, a roving laboratory the size of a compact car, landed right on target late on Sundaynight after an eight-month, 352 …timesofmalta.com

http://www.allplacedout.com/mars-rover-transmits-landing-video/

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