As you probably know, NASA recently launched the Curiosity rover and enjoyed a successful landing on Mars.  One of the greatest moments was when the first image was resolved and transmitted back to Earth.  But now we're lucky to have a whole new assortment of images for us to peruse, and new ones are constantly being transmitted back to us at a rate of  rougly thirteen minutes per image.  That's actually pretty fast, if you think about it, but that's another story.  The important thing is that Curiosity is alive and well and giving us a first-person view of just what's going on at the red planet, and we'll be in for a great experience for quite some time.

"Nasa's Curiosity rover has begun satisfying the curiosity of mission scientists by sending high-quality images of Mars' surface back to Earth. Although it's only had since Sunday night to collect data, following its touchdown in the Gale Crater, Curiosity has sent a batch of snapshots that are already allowing the NASA team to garner a good deal of information.

The rover's first pictures show where its hardware -- including the sky crane, a parachute, a heat shield and a back shell -- landed, giving scientists new insights about the Martian surface.

"Next to the rover, you can see where the rocket thrust blew away some of the soil and revealed a harder material underneath," said Mike Malaska, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory solar system ambassador. "That tells us that the firm material layer might not be very thick."

The rover wheel itself also helps scientists better gauge Mars' topography."

Source: Tech News World

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