Curiosity sees Mount Sharp Up Close and gets ‘Brain Transplant’
by KEN KREMER on AUGUST 12, 2012
mage Caption: Mosaic of Mount Sharp inside Curiosity’s Gale Carter landing site. Gravelly rocks are strewn in the foreground, dark dune field lies beyond and then the first detailed view of the layered buttes and mesas of the sedimentary rock of Mount Sharp. This mosaic was assembled from three full resolution Navcam images returned by Curiosity on Sol 2 (Aug 8) and colorized based on Mastcam images from the 34 millimeter camera. Processing by Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo. Topsoil at right was excavated by the ‘sky crane’ landing thrusters. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo
The Curiosity rover has beamed back the first detailed images of Mount Sharp, offering a stupendous initial view of her ultimate driving goal, and is now in the midst of a crucial “brain transplant” this weekend that will transform her into a fully operational rover.
The science team will direct the six-wheeled Curiosity to begin climbing Mount Sharp at some later date during the rovers’ two year primary mission after traversing and extensively investigating the floor of her landing site inside Gale Crater.
This weekend Curiosity has also begun transmitting spectacular hi res Mastcam images that will far exceed anything else thus far. Here is the Mastcam 360 pano as assembled by NASA so far:
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/96740/curiosity-sees-mount-sharp-up-close-and-gets-brain-transplant/#ixzz23LdxWA1s
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/96740/curiosity-sees-mount-sharp-up-close-and-gets-brain-transplant/
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