Another day, another incredible shot from space of the Curiosity rover's components on Mars. This latest image shows off a before and afterwhere the probe's entry ballast masses impacted the ground.
Taken with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Context Camera, the picture reveals the scorched soil from the ballasts hitting the Martian soil at incredible speed. The six 55-pound tungsten ballast masses were shed after Curiosity entered the Martian atmosphere, just before deploying its parachute. They fell in an area about 0.6 miles wide and roughly 7.5 miles from where the rover touched down.
Scientists are very interested in the components from the rover's complex entry, descent, and landing sequence in order to find out how closely the real sequence matched their simulations.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
