Tour Mars’ Gale Crater from the vantage point of NASA’s Curiosity Rover at Vera Rubin Ridge. In this video, project scientist Ashwin Vasavada points out geographical features and the rover’s path within this composite wide-angle panorama image. From The Washington Post:
After 1,856 Martian days among blue sunsets, sand dunes and small, lumpy moons, the Mars rover Curiosity sat on the ridge of an ancient lake bed and looked back on its five-year-long journey so far…
In one image was its whole story: from the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, where it sat holding its camera, to the spot in the crater floor 11 miles distant, where it had touched down five years earlier to great celebration on Earth.
Related reading at NASA.gov: ‘Raw,’ ‘Natural’ and ‘White-Balanced’ Views of Martian Terrain.
Related videos: Curiosityβs Seven Minutes of Terror and the challenges of landing on Mars, tour all six NASA spacecraft to reach the Red Planet, a topographic model of Mars, and see what it looked like for Curiosity as it hurtled toward the surface of Mars.Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.