NASA releases amazing pictures of Mars rover Curiosity from space

Zee Media Bureau/Salome Phelamei

Washington: NASA has released astonishing pictures of the Curiosity rover clicked by its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as the robotic spacecraft rambles across the Martian surface. The two images were snapped by the spacecraft`s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on December 11 2013. The first image shows the two parallel lines of the Curiosity`s wheel tracks are about 10 feat (3m) apart. A second image released by NASA shows Curiosity rover`s tracks as seen by the orbiter spacecraft, but not the rover itself. Dr John Bridges, University of Leicester space scientist, who is working with NASA to interpret data sent back by the rover said: “The HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter keeps an eye on our progress, sending back photos every few months. “A recently captured image taken on December 11, shows the tracks and rover as we pick our way around impact craters and their boulder fields.” The Curiosity rover was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, aboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft and successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012. The car-sized rover is currently on its way to an area known as Mount Sharp. Curiosity`s goals include- investigation of the Martian surface for signs that liquid water once flowed on the Red Planet, and that whether the planet has ever supported microbial life.