Who doesn’t like to look back at their freshly-mowed lawn and feel a sense of accomplishment at completing the task? We all like tangible reminders of progress. NASA’s mission controllers and engineers are no different. After seeing photos of the Curiosity Rover’s tracks in the Martian dust taken by the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), high-fives went around the room. 358 feet of pure squiggly beauty!
Curiosity is headed toward the rocks and soil of Glenelg to investigate terrain that may once have been soaked with water. Notice the dogleg – it was done to skirt sands that could potentially mire the robot. We don’t a repeat of what happened to the Spirit Rover, especially this early in the game.
Other new photos released include more detailed color views by MRO of the impacts of the parachute and sky crane that delivered the rover to the surface. Judging by the asymmetric pattern, the crane must have struck the ground at a shallow angle.
Most craters or impacts are surrounded by an apron of impact debris arrayed in a circular or radial pattern. As long as the angle of the object hitting the ground is 45 degrees from the horizontal or greater, that’s what you get. Once the angle drops below 45, the debris gets stretched out or elongated in the direction of motion. Below 15 degrees, the ejected material is not only stretched out behind the impact, but no material appears in front (uprange) of the impact.