Mars Orbiter Spies Rover Landing SiteBy Leonard David Senior Space Writer
posted: 29 November 2006 5:55 p.m. ETNew imagery taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been released, a sweeping gallery of red planet photos – including Endurance crater that NASA’s Opportunity rover explored for ten months.
The zoom lens photo album comes courtesy of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (MRO) High Resolution Science Imaging Experiment (HiRISE).
Imagery released today shows the landing site for the Opportunity Mars rover with its parachute resting atop the Martian landscape [image],
the spacecraft’s heat shield at a different spot,
and the airbag cushioned lander itself resting inside the floor of a small impact feature – later dubbed Eagle Crater.
The HiRISE camera takes images of 3.5-mile-wide (six-kilometer) swaths as the orbiter flies at about 7,800 mph
(12,552 kilometers per hour) between 155 and 196 miles (250 to 316 kilometers) above the planet.
The camera resolves geologic features as small as 40 inches (101 centimeters) across.
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Mars Exploration Rover Landing Site at Meridiani Planum