Curiosity and its Parachute Spotted by Mars-Orbiting satellite

Here is an image of the MSL "Curiosity" and its parachute during yesterday's descent and landing, taken from another satellite in Martian orbit. This image was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter (or MRO), which has been in orbit around Mars since 2006



Source: www.nasa.gov...

It's great that they got this satellite in position to capture this image.

Are you being sarcastic? Well either way this looks fake as hell. I just find it a little bit odd...I don't know probably looking into it more than I should I guess

Looks right to me. THe parachute and curiosity are white so they are very reflective. Nothing wrong with timing it so that curiosity lands at the same time our satellite does a pass over head. THe better to get a shot of it to see whats going on in case a transmitter went on the fritz during entry and communications are temporarily lost.

Originally posted by HawkeyeNation
Are you being sarcastic? Well either way this looks fake as hell. I just find it a little bit odd...I don't know probably looking into it more than I should I guess

It looks fake as hell?

Please, use your expertise and stop making statements and if you cant, stop posting your opinions unless you have a legit argument with details.

This is not Reddit.com people.

No one cares about your witty comments and trolling posts here. If you cant contribute constructively, why are you even here?

If you think its fake, MAKE A CASE FOR YOURSELF! (So we can rip you apart from the seams).

Star and flag for you!! Great find!!

I would have loved to have seen the sky crane in action, that would have been awsome to see but at least we know it worked

Thanks again for the find!!


Be safe people

Originally posted by HawkeyeNation
Are you being sarcastic? Well either way this looks fake as hell. I just find it a little bit odd...I don't know probably looking into it more than I should I guess

Can you explain in detail what a real picture of a spacecraft parachuting to the Martian surface SHOULD look like?

Interesting coincidence on the timing of both objects in the same location.
If this wasn't planned, then the odds of such a timed location intersect are phenomenal.

Mars is a pretty big planet, and for that orbiter to be at that exact area when the chute was deployed is either a great catch, or complete BS.

Originally posted by viperdave
Star and flag for you!! Great find!!

I would have loved to have seen the sky crane in action, that would have been awsome to see but at least we know it worked

Thanks again for the find!!


Be safe people

They had a "live" computer simulation going on last night as it was happening. Its was super cool! Though, no truly live. Listening to the Nasa feed while watching the simulation was pretty damn awesome!

I even jumped up and fist pumped and yelled "YES!" with the nasa crew as they confirmed touchdown! Amazing!

Originally posted by viperdave
Star and flag for you!! Great find!!

I would have loved to have seen the sky crane in action, that would have been awsome to see but at least we know it worked

Thanks again for the find!!


Be safe people

The Mars Odyssey Orbiter was in position to see the landing (albeit it was relatively low on the horizon), so maybe it tried to get an image.

However, Mars Odyssey does not have as high-resolution camera as the MRO, and it would be looking at it at an oblique angle -- PLUS (and maybe more importantly) Odyssey was busy relaying the landing data from Curiosity back to Earth, so perhaps that would make it unable to photograph the sky-crane. Curiosity sent all of its landing data through the Mars Odyssey as a relay.

reply to post by JibbyJedi

It was planned.

If we were not to do anything, the Mars’ orbiting spacecraft may be on the other side of the planet,” said MSL navigation team chief Tomas Martin-Mur, during an interview with UT. “So as soon as we launch, we tell the other spacecraft where we are going to be by the time of entry so they can change their orbits over time, so they will be flying overhead as MSL approaches the planet.”

www.universetoday.com...
hirise.lpl.arizona.edu...

Originally posted by JibbyJedi
Interesting coincidence on the timing of both objects in the same location.
If this wasn't planned, then the odds of such a timed location intersect are phenomenal.

Mars is a pretty big planet, and for that orbiter to be at that exact area when the chute was deployed is either a great catch, or complete BS.

It was planned.

There was a similar image of the Phoenix lander (also taken by the MRO).

EDIT:
Phage beat me to it

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by viperdave
Star and flag for you!! Great find!!

I would have loved to have seen the sky crane in action, that would have been awsome to see but at least we know it worked

Thanks again for the find!!


Be safe people

The Mars Odyssey Orbiter was in position to see the landing (albeit it was relatively low on the horizon), so maybe it tried to get an image.

However, Mars Odyssey does not have as high-resolution camera as the MRO, and it would be looking at it at an oblique angle -- PLUS (and maybe more importantly) Odyssey was busy relaying the landing data from Curiosity back to Earth, so perhaps that would make it unable to photograph the sky-crane. Curiosity sent all of its landing data through the Mars Odyssey as a relay.

No no no no no! Stop being all 'logical' and 'using real data about the mission' during this. It quite obviously is faked and staged to take our eyes and our minds off of something more important going down. This was the distraction for those who didn't care about the olympics. They saw the Olympics were fading and people slowly stopped caring and needed to ensure that everyone was distracted by something.

They had this all planned since November of 2011 I tells ya!

lol - seriously though. I am just messing around. Anyone who did any kind of simple search knew about it being planned (such as Phage above me whom posted links) and it was a smart way of doing things. The inane theories of this being faked etc. are just too much.

...and this is coming from someone who believes the footage of us landing on the moon was faked. Seriously. So you know youre being out of sorts when a Moon Fakery type person says its unreasonable.

reply to post by Phage


Thanks for that confirmation. I was not aware of the planning of that capture.
I can now enjoy the photo without the burden of my conspiracy mind interfering.

interresting carvings at the soil richt side of the pic... and some caves aswell?
well chosen landings area....

this picture makes this mission so perfect , NASA is doing a great job and i think this mission will last for a long long time .

oh and we will see much more beautiful pictures than the previous missions and of course ATS will be full of them too.

thank you NASA for every thing.

Originally posted by ressiv
interresting carvings at the soil richt side of the pic... and some caves aswell?
well chosen landings area....

edit on 6-8-2012 by ressiv because: (no reason given)

That's not the landing area. this picture is taken at a bit of an oblique angle, and the landing area is not in the image.

This is the landing area:
marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov...

Gale crater was chosen as the landing area due to s few factors. In short Gale Crater was chosen as the landing site because of the presence of clay material, which form in a neutral (non-acidic) watery environment and the presence of sulfates, which also indicate water. In addition, there is a mountain in the middle of the crater -- dubbed "Mt. Sharp" -- that perhaps has billions of years worth of exposed strata that can be studied by Curiosity, which can help give a geological history of Mars. The highlands around Mt. Sharp also show signs that they were underwater at one time. This all indicates that Gale Crater could have at one time been a lake or something similar.

Here is another thread which goes into more detail about the choosing of the landing site (including a video lecture by a NASA geologist explaining the site selection):
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Incredible to think that the people at NASA are able to time something like this, so far away. Imagine how terrible it would have been if they collided.

That is one hell of a pic.Thanks for sharing.

Thanks also to NASA for placing the big white square around Curiosity and parachute... would have never spotted it without your help.

Originally posted by HawkeyeNation
Are you being sarcastic? Well either way this looks fake as hell. I just find it a little bit odd...I don't know probably looking into it more than I should I guess

Believe it or not. It's simple math to get certain satellites in the right position at the right time. They purposefully placed the observing satellite overhead when the Curiosity was inbound for landing. Great picture! Great job NASA!