NASA Captures First Orbital Image Of Mars Rover On The Move
NASA's Curiosity rover appears as a dark speck in this contrast-enhanced view captured by the Mars ... More Reconnaissance Orbiter.
NASA's Curiosity rover was trucking across the surface of Mars, heading to its next destination, when a faraway paparazzo snagged an image of the wheeled explorer on the move. The Mars rover photo didn't end up splashed across the cover of a celebrity gossip rag, but it did end up in NASA's social media feeds.
The camera-wielding culprit was NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft that has been in residence around Mars since 2006. The snapshot 'is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the red planet,' NASA said in a statement on April 24.
MRO's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera has sent back plenty of memorable images of the red planet's surface, including a woodpecker-like formation and an updated look at the infamous 'Face on Mars' that first attracted attention in the 1970s. MRO has also helped scientists understand the patterns of global dust storms on Mars.
The rover image comes from Feb. 28. Follow the squiggly line down from the upper right of the photo. The dark speck near the bottom at the end of the line is Curiosity. 'By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover's commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive,' said Curiosity's planning team chief Doug Ellison.
The tracks in the image show part of Curiosity's recent drive history. The line covers about 1,050 feet from 11 drives the rover made starting on Feb. 2. It's just one small piece of the car-sized rover's explorations. Curiosity landed on Mars in the Gale Crater in 2012. The rover has driven over 21 miles as it studies the slopes of Mount Sharp, the massive central mountain inside the crater.
Human-made machines are small objects compared to the wide landscapes of Mars. MRO has developed a side hobby of photographing these tricky subjects, like when it snapped a poignant farewell image of NASA's defunct InSight lander. InSight appeared as a dusty speck in the view.
Curiosity is NASA's oldest functioning rover on Mars. Its sibling rover Perseverance arrived in 2021. Curiosity is still making groundbreaking discoveries as it seeks to understand if Mars may have once been habitable for microbial life. Mars is an unfriendly place today, but it once had more water and there are hints it could have hosted life long ago, though more study is needed.
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover appears as a dark speck in this image captured from directly overhead by ... More the agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
MRO's HiRise camera has captured Curiosity before, notably in a color image from early 2024. 'The orbiter is equipped with a camera capable of viewing objects the size of a dinner table on the red planet's surface,' NASA said at the time.
While the new view captures a single moment in time for Curiosity, Mars fans can imagine the before and after and how the rover was on the move. Curiosity maxes out at about 0.1 mph for its top speed, so it's not exactly a race car. Rocky, sandy and rough terrain can slow it down. It's still a notable achievement for MRO to capture the rover in action like a sports photographer snapping a footballer rumbling down the field.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Trump's palace coup leaves NASA in limbo
When President-elect Donald Trump nominated Jared Isaacman to become NASA administrator, it seemed like a brilliant choice. Business entrepreneur, private astronaut, Isaacman was just the man to revamp NASA and make it into a catalyst for taking humanity to the moon, Mars and beyond. Isaacman sailed through the confirmation process in the Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), by a vote of 19 to 9. He was poised to be confirmed by the full Senate when something so bizarre happened that it beggars the imagination. The White House suddenly and with no clear reason why, pulled Isaacman's nomination. After months of a confirmation process, NASA was back to square one for getting a new leader. Ars Technica's Eric Berger offered an explanation as to why. 'One mark against Isaacman is that he had recently donated money to Democrats,' he wrote. 'He also indicated opposition to some of the White House's proposed cuts to NASA's science budget.' But these facts were well known even before Trump nominated Isaacman. Trump himself, before he ran for president as a Republican, donated to Democrats and was close friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Berger goes on to say that a source told the publication that, 'with Musk's exit, his opponents within the administration sought to punish him by killing Isaacman's nomination.' The idea that Isaacman's nomination is being deep-sixed because of Musk runs contrary to the public praise that the president has given the billionaire rocket and electric car entrepreneur. Trump was uncharacteristically terse in his own social media post. 'After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA,' he wrote. 'I will soon announce a new nominee who will be mission aligned, and put America First in Space. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' CNN reports that Isaacman's ouster was the result of a palace coup, noting that a source said, 'Musk's exit left room for a faction of people in Trump's inner circle, particularly Sergio Gor, the longtime Trump supporter and director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, to advocate for installing a different nominee.' The motive seems to be discontent about the outsized influence that Musk has had on the White House and a desire to take him down a peg or two. Isaacman was profoundly gracious, stating in part, 'I am incredibly grateful to President Trump @POTUS, the Senate and all those who supported me throughout this journey. The past six months have been enlightening and, honestly, a bit thrilling. I have gained a much deeper appreciation for the complexities of government and the weight our political leaders carry.' The idea that a man like Isaacman, well respected by the aerospace community, who was predicted to sail through a confirmation vote in the full Senate, could be taken down by an obscure bureaucrat in White House intrigue, motivated by petty spite, is mind boggling. Even Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who has not been fond of Trump's space policy, was appalled. He posted on his X account that Isaacman 'ran into the kind of politics that is damaging our country.' 'Republicans and Democrats supported him as the right guy at the right time for the top job at NASA, but it wasn't enough.' NASA is in for months more of turmoil and uncertainty as the nomination process gets reset and starts grinding its way through the Senate. The draconian, truncated budget proposal is certainly not helpful, either. Congress, which had been supportive of Trump's space policy, is not likely to be pleased by the president's high-handed shivving of his own nominee. Whoever Trump chooses to replace Isaacman as NASA administrator nominee, no matter how qualified, should face some very direct questioning. Trump's NASA budget proposal should be dead on arrival, which, considering the cuts in science and technology, is not necessarily a bad thing. China must be looking at the spectacle of NASA being mired in political wrangling, a leadership vacuum and budget uncertainty with glee. Beijing has its own space ambitions, with a planned crewed lunar landing by 2030. It's possible that the Chinese will steal a march on NASA, with all the damage that will do to America's standing in the world. It didn't have to be this way. Isaacman could be settling in as NASA administrator, deploying his business acumen and vision to lead the space agency to its greatest achievements. Instead, America's space effort has received a self-inflicted blow from which it will be long in recovering, Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled 'Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?' as well as 'The Moon, Mars and Beyond,' and, most recently, 'Why is America Going Back to the Moon?' He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.
Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Gizmodo
NASA Pulls the Plug on Europa Lander, but Scientists Propose a Plan B
NASA engineers have spent the past decade developing a rugged, partially autonomous lander designed to explore Europa, one of Jupiter's most intriguing moons. The space agency got cold feet over the project, but engineers are now targeting a new destination for the probe: Enceladus. Europa has long been a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial biology because scientists suspect it harbors a subsurface ocean beneath its icy crust, potentially teeming with microbial life. But the robot—packed with radiation shielding, cutting-edge software, and ice-drilling appendages—won't be going anywhere anytime soon. In a recent paper in Science Robotics, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) outlined the design and testing of what was once the Europa Lander prototype, a four-legged robotic explorer built to survive the brutal surface conditions of the Jovian moon. The robot was designed to walk—as opposed to roll—analyze terrain, collect samples, and drill into Europa's icy crust—all with minimal guidance from Earth, due to the major communication lag between our planet and the moon 568 million miles (914 million kilometers) away. Designed to operate autonomously for hours at a time, the bot came equipped with stereoscopic cameras, a robotic arm, LED lights, and a suite of specialized materials tough enough to endure harsh radiation and bone-chilling cold. Temperatures on the moon range from about -210 degrees Fahrenheit (-134 degrees Celsius) at its equator to as low as -370 degrees F (-223 degrees C) at its poles. After years of development—including testing in JPL's labs, advanced simulations, and a final field trial on icy terrain in Alaska—the Europa Lander aced its tests. It was ready to take on the solar system's frosty frontier. But the space agency has now pulled the plug on the mission. According to the team, the challenges of getting to Europa—its radiation exposure, immense distance, and short observation windows—proved too daunting for NASA's higher-ups. And that's before you take into consideration the devastating budget cuts planned by the Trump administration, which would see the agency's funding fall from $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion. The lander, once the centerpiece of a bold astrobiology initiative, is now essentially mothballed. But the engineers aren't giving up. They're now lobbying for the robot to get a second shot—on Enceladus, Saturn's ice-covered moon, which also boasts a subsurface ocean and has proven more favorable for robotic exploration. Enceladus is still frigid, but has lower radiation and better access windows than Europa. Whether the ice-walker gets a new lease on its semi-autonomous life remains to be seen. But the robot was built for a moonwalk—albeit a relatively rigid and clanky one—and it deserves its moment.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Northern Lights Seen Glowing Over Earth in Breathtaking Video Shared by NASA Astronaut: Watch
A NASA astronaut shared a stunning video of the northern lights from space Col. Anne McClain took the footage from the International Space Station The lights, also known as the aurora borealis, were caused by a small geomagnetic stormA NASA astronaut shared a rare and stunning video of the northern lights from space. The footage was shared by Col. Anne McClain, who is onboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked at the International Space Station (ISS). She specifically shared her view of the lights — also called the aurora borealis — from the Cupola, which is the dome-shaped panoramic control tower on the station. 'Auroras from space always draw crewmembers to the Cupola. I love how this one illuminated our Dragon, and I also love the dance of satellites on the left in the latter part of the video,' she captioned the video on X. 'It's interesting how the aurora creeps along the top of the atmosphere as it comes up over the horizon,' she added. 'I have added traveling to see auroras from Earth to my bucket list!' In an X post also shared on June 2, NASA astronaut Nichole 'Vapor' Ayers, who is also on the ISS, explained that the 'sun has been pretty active over the last week, which means some phenomenal auroras!' A forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that geomagnetic storms created an increased chance of seeing the Northern Lights this past week, per the BBC. According to NOAA, a geomagnetic storm is a disturbance of Earth's magnetosphere — a.k.a. the region around the planet dominated by a magnetic field. The disturbances occur when there is an exchange of energy between solar wind and the 'space environment' surrounding Earth. NOAA states that while these storms can create beautiful auroras, large storms can disrupt navigation systems and even cause harmful currents to Earth's power grids — though the most recent storms have been too mild to do so. And as to why the northern lights emit different colors? Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. It's dependent on the interaction of space particles with specific gases in the atmosphere, per NASA. Space particles that interact with oxygen produce green or red light, while nitrogen gas produces blue or pink hues. The light emitted from the gases can also appear to blend and mix, creating purple and white light. Read the original article on People
