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PIA15995: Narrowing in on Curiosity's Landing Site
This image shows the location (green) where scientists estimate NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars within Gale Crater, based on images from the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI).
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) 
 Spacecraft:  Curiosity
 Instrument:  MARDI 
 Product Size:  9000 x 6750 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA15995.tif (182.3 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA15995.jpg (2.007 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 shows the location (green) where scientists estimate NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars within Gale Crater, based on images from the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI).

The stack of color MARDI images was taken as the rover was gently placed on the surface by the descent stage as its rockets fired. The smallest image was taken when the rover was less than 66 feet (20 meters) above the ground. These observations helped scientists pinpoint the landing site of the rover to where the green spot is shown, to within about 16 feet (5 meters) of certainty.

The gray scale image is a mosaic from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2012-08-07