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PIA11425: Descent Stage of Mars Science Laboratory During Assembly
This image from early October 2008 shows personnel working on the descent stage of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
 Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) 
 Spacecraft:  Curiosity
 Product Size:  2736 x 3648 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA11425.tif (29.94 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA11425.jpg (1.089 MB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This image from early October 2008 shows personnel working on the descent stage of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The descent stage will provide rocket-powered deceleration for a phase of the arrival at Mars after the phases using the heat shield and parachute. When it nears the surface, the descent stage will lower the rover on a bridle the rest of the way to the ground. The larger three of the orange spheres in the descent stage are fuel tanks. The smaller two are tanks for pressurant gas used for pushing the fuel to the rocket engines.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2008-11-19