The site Universe Today as ample coverage of the Curiosity landing on Mars. You can catch the image of the parachute stage of the landing snatched from Mars orbit (left). There’s a movie picking things up after the heat shield was jettisoned. The first color image from the surface, too. Not only did Curiosity make it to the surface, but the heat shield, parachute and back shell, and the sky crane, too. I wonder if checking out the debris will be on Curiosity’s to-do list.
I was crossing my fingers on this one. I honestly thought Curiosity wasn’t likely to make it, given all the things that had to go right. But, like Jose Funes SJ of the Vatican Observatory, I’m happy about the success and looking forward to years of Martian roving.
According to the JPL press conference yesterday, they have no plans to visit the debris. In the case of the sky crane, it would be dangerous because of all the hydrazine contamination.
As y’all probably know right now, this was the first image Curiosity beamed back: