Thu, Mar 03, 2005
Remains of Shield Found... In Pieces
The accompanying images from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover
Opportunity show the remains of the rover's heat shield, broken
into two key pieces, the main piece on the left side and a
broken-off flank piece near the middle of the image.
The heat shield impact site is identified by the circle of red
dust on the right side of the picture. In this view, Opportunity is
approximately 20 meters (66 feet) away from the heat shield, which
protected it while hurtling through the martian atmosphere.
In the far left of the image, a meteorite called "Heat Shield
Rock," sits nearby, The Sun is reflecting off the silver-colored
underside of the internal thermal blankets of the heat shield. The
rover spent 36 sols investigating how the severe heating during
entry through the atmosphere affected the heat shield. The most
obvious is the fact that the heat shield inverted upon impact.
This is an approximately true-color rendering of the scene
acquired around 1:22 p.m. local solar time on Opportunity sol 324
(Dec. 21, 2004) in an image mosaic using panoramic filters at
wavelengths of 750, 530, and 430 nanometers.
The rover spent 36 sols investigating how the severe heating
during entry through the atmosphere affected the heat shield. The
most obvious is the fact that the heat shield inverted upon impact.
This is the panoramic camera team's best current attempt at
generating a true-color view of what this scene would look like if
viewed by a human on Mars.
It was generated from a mathematical combination of six
calibrated, left-eye panoramic camera images acquired around 1:50
p.m. local solar time on Opportunity's sol 322 (Dec. 19, 2004)
using filters ranging in wavelengths from 430 to 750
nanometers.
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