Curiosity Landed Within One Mile of Target

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover came awfully close to hitting the bull’s eye when it landed earlier this week.   After travelling 352 million miles, the spacecraft landed approximately one mile away from its targeted impact point.   As NASA officials said in pre-landing briefings, it was like launching from Cape Canaveral and landing in a particular seat in the Rose Bowl. 

This illustration shows the major stages of Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL).  Below it are the times at which selected events actually occurred based on preliminary analysis of a modest amount of data that was returned shortly after touchdown.   Members of the EDL team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Space Center and Langley Research Center met with the press today and said they would have a more detailed analysis once more the data are returned to Earth.

Image credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech

The times for selected events are as follows:

Time of Event Occurrence at Mars (PDT)

[10:10:45.7 PM] Atmospheric Entry

[10:15:04.9 PM] Parachute Deploy

[10:15:24.6 PM] Heat Shield Separation

[10:17:38.6 PM] Rover Separation (from Descent Stage)

[10:17:57.3 PM] Touchdown

Time Event Occurrence Received on Earth (PDT)

[10:24:33.8 PM] Atmospheric Entry

[10:28:53.0 PM] Parachute Deploy

[10:29:12.7 PM] Heat Shield Separation

[10:31:26.7 PM] Rover Separation (from Descent Stage)

[10:31:45.4 PM] Touchdown

Also based on preliminary analysis, the team concluded that the Sky Crane descent module landed about 600 meters (about 2,000 feet) from the rover.   They believe that Curiosity’s cameras recorded not the impact itself, but the cloud created by the impact, which then dissipated, as shown in these images.

 

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech