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Curiosity rover spotted by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter BY STEPHEN CLARK ASTRONOMY NOW Posted: 11 January 2014 A high-resolution camera mounted on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has collected imagery showing the Curiosity rover's trek across Gale Crater toward a three-mile-high mountain.
HiRISE has also periodically imaged spacecraft already on Mars, including Curiosity, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers and the Phoenix lander after it arrived in 2008. The camera, the highest-resolution imager ever put in orbit around Mars, is operated by scientists at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
After touching down inside Gale Crater in August 2012 and exploring nearby rocks and an ancient riverbed, Curiosity is driving to the foothills of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high peak where researchers hope to find layered terrain that might tell them about the planet's warmer, wetter past when life may have thrived on Mars. The rover is expected to arrive at the base of the mountain some time in mid-2014. |
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