[meteorite-list] Mars Orbiter Images Rover and Tracks in Gale Crater (MRO)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-009  

Mars Orbiter Images Rover and Tracks in Gale Crater
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 09, 2014

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and its recent tracks from driving in Gale
Crater appear in an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Dec.
11, 2013.

Excerpts from the large HiRISE observation are at:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17755, showing the rover,
and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17754, showing tracks
across a landscape in enhanced color.

The tracks show where the rover has zigzagged around obstacles on its
route toward the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, its next major destination.

HiRISE first imaged the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft while it was
descending on a parachute to place Curiosity on Mars 17 months ago.
Since then, it has provided updated views of the rover's traverse, as
seen from orbit.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument
was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project and Mars Science Laboratory project
are managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, by
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about HiRISE, see http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu .
For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/mro . For more information about Opportunity, visit
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov
<http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html> .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2014-009