Curiosity sends high-resolution color images from Gale Crater
The images show a landscape closely resembling portions of the southwestern United States.
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NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. —
Published:
August 13, 2012 This image is the first high-resolution color mosaic from NASA's Curiosity rover, showing the geological environment around the rover's landing site in Gale Crater on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The 79 images that went into the large mosaics were taken August 9 EDT by Curiosity's 34-millimeter Mastcam. The black areas indicate high-resolution images not yet returned by the rover.
Curiosity sent lower-resolution versions of these images earlier in the week. The latest versions, sent while Curiosity was undergoing a software "brain transplant" and pausing in its acquisition of new science data, are 1,200 by 1,200 pixels.
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 This color image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows part of the wall of Gale Crater, the location on Mars where the rover landed August 6, 2012, EDT. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Smaller mosaics of some of the areas most interesting to science team members are also available. One shows a section on the crater wall north of the landing site, where a network of valleys believed to have formed by water erosion enters Gale Crater from the outside. This is the first view scientists have had of a fluvial system – one relating to a river or stream – from the surface of Mars.
A second section of the mosaic looks south of the landing site, toward Mount Sharp, a peak that is about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) high and taller than Mt. Whitney in California. This provides an overview of the eventual geologic targets Curiosity will explore in the next two years. Close by is a rock-strewn, gravelly surface. Farther away is a dark dune field, and beyond that lie the layered buttes and mesas of the sedimentary rock of Mount Sharp.
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 This color image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows an area excavated by the blast of the Mars Science Laboratory's descent stage rocket engines. This is part of a larger, high-resolution color mosaic made from images obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity continues to be healthy, with all instruments and engineering subsystems operating as planned. There are no science or instrument activities planned on Sol 5. Last night, the new flight software, which is optimized for surface operations, was tested for the first time and successfully executed all planned Sol 5 rover activities. The test demonstrated that the new software is ready to support the upcoming surface operations mission phase. After an afternoon nap, Curiosity then returned to operating on its previous flight software, as planned. The rover's primary main computer was permanently transitioned to the new flight software today.
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