Photos show rover’s precise Mars landing

Associated Press

PASADENA, Calif.

The robotic explorer Curiosity’s daring plunge through the pink skies of Mars was more than perfect. It landed with spectacular style, said a NASA scientist, describing the first images of its mechanical gymnastics.

Hours after NASA learned the rover had arrived on target, engineers and scientists got the first glimpses of the intricate maneuvers it made to hit the Martian soil safely.

“It’s a spectacular image,” said NASA research scientist Luther Beegle. The photo, taken from an orbiting Mars spacecraft, shows Curiosity dangling from its supersonic parachute as it descended.

Extraordinary efforts were needed for the landing because the rover weighs 1 ton, and the Martian atmosphere is very thin, not offering much friction to slow the spacecraft down.

Later Monday, NASA released a low-resolution video of Curiosity during the final few minutes of its descent to the Martian surface.

The video showed the protective heat shield falling away as the rover plummeted through Mars’ atmosphere, and dust was being kicked up as it was lowered by cables inside a crater.

The mission team is awaiting full-resolution frames of the descent — a process that would take some time. Once they’re sent back, it’ll be the first full glimpse of a spacecraft landing on another world.

Cheers and applause echoed through the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory late Sunday after signals from space indicated Curiosity had survived the harrowing plunge.

“Touchdown confirmed,” said engineer Allen Chen. “We’re safe on Mars.”

Minutes after the landing signal reached Earth at 10:32 p.m. PDT, Curiosity beamed back the first black-and-white pictures from inside the crater showing its wheel and its shadow, cast by the afternoon sun.

“We landed in a nice, flat spot. Beautiful, really beautiful,” said engineer Adam Steltzner, who led the team that devised the tricky landing routine.

It was NASA’s seventh landing on Earth’s neighbor; many other attempts by the U.S. and other countries to zip past, circle or set down on Mars have gone awry.